For a few important reasons, our Langley children's dentists advise against the use of teeth whitening products for children.
Whitening children's teeth is not a great idea for two main reasons.
Your child may not actually have discoloured teeth.
Adult teeth can sometimes appear a little yellow in colour when they first erupt, in particular when compared to adjacent baby teeth. This is because adult teeth have far more dentin, which is yellow in colour, than baby teeth do.
Dentin, is the layer of the tooth that is immediately under the enamel. Their colour shows through the enamel, and this is why children’s adult teeth can look yellow in comparison to the baby teeth; not because they are stained or abnormally dark.
As long as your child has a healthy diet and a thorough and regular brushing and flossing routine, slightly yellow permanent teeth are nothing to worry about.
There’s not a lot of research on how whitening products affect growing teeth.
This is probably the most important reason that we don't recommend teeth whitening for childrem. The fact is, there simply isn’t enough data out there yet about the effects whitening products could have on developing teeth for us to feel comfortable about it. Our dentists consider it better to play it safe and wait until children are teenagers before considering teeth whitening.