How to Brighten the Color of Dental Caps

Dental caps, which are also called crowns, are porcelain coverings for teeth. They are commonly used when teeth are cracked, damaged, require a root canal or have large or broken fillings. The dental caps are matched to tooth color at the time they are put in with the teeth. Over time, changes in the tooth color or stains on the teeth can result in an odd mismatch between teeth and crown. The porcelain caps are difficult to stain, so the only way to actually change the crown color is replacing the crown. It is possible to brighten the dental caps by brightening the surrounding teeth so that the colors match if teeth staining occurred and the cap is more white in color.

Things You'll Need

• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste
• Whitening strips
• Baking soda

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Instructions

• 1

  Try whitening the teeth with home whitening methods. First remove plaque using a toothbrush and toothpaste. Then use baking soda on the toothbrush and brush your teeth. Use whitening strips afterward. These methods are useful for any surface stains. Porcelain is less prone to staining than the enamel in teeth. If teeth are less white than the original porcelain color, the porcelain can stand out as odd and brightening the surrounding teeth can make the crown brighter as a result of brighter teeth.

• 2

  Get the teeth bleached or whitened by a dentist, if home whitening is not enough. Compare the crown with the final whitening procedure. If the crown is darker than the newly whitened teeth, the crown remains problematic. If the problem was staining on the teeth, the crown should not stand out much after whitening.

• 3

  Replace the crown. The only way to change the color of a crown is replacing it with a new crown in a brighter color. Changing the crown is a potentially costly procedure, so only change it as a last effort when whitening the teeth does not help make the crown less noticeable.