Ultradent’s Opalescence Whitening Systems​

Sure. As a general rule, most of the stains that appear from inside a tooth are made up of organic molecules that are held together by conjugated double bonds. Molecules with conjugated double bonds selectively absorb some wavelengths of lights and don’t absorb other wavelengths, which makes the tooth appear dark.
In a conjugated double bond, each bond is made up of electrons that oppose each other. Now, peroxide is fabulous for breaking these conjugated double bonds. That little oxygen radical—that little O³ in peroxide—is very eager to attach to an electron in order to stabilize and get back to O² again. So the O³ goes into the tooth and attaches to one of those electrons, breaking the conjugated double bond and an O² molecule forms. When you use peroxide to break a conjugated double bond into single bonds and smaller molecules, the molecules become translucent and the stain appears to go away. 

 

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So, contrary to popular belief, when one whitens with peroxide they’re not actually removing stains from the tooth. What is actually happening is that the whitening solution is changing those molecules and the way they reflect or absorb light. The molecules become translucent, making the tooth appear whiter.

 

It’s important for dentists to avoid whitening agents that have a pH lower than five, as these agents have been shown can cause demineralization. You want to obtain and use whitening agents that ideally have a pH of about six, maybe closer to seven. But peroxide in and of itself, when it is in a near neutral formulation, is not decalcifying to the tooth. There are some clinicians out there that believe they need to remineralize the teeth after whitening, but, at the end of the day, the enamel with not be demineralized or harmed if you’re working with a peroxide that has a close-to-neutral pH.