Should I get my front fillings replaced?

[SincerelyBygones]

I'm not sure whether I'm in the right forum, but I can't find one for dentistry. I had an extraction some time ago and now going ahead privately with a dental implant. The private dentist has suggested that before putting the actual crown on, I could consider having my teeth whitened and then he'll make sure that the crown matches.

I'd like to have a whiter shade of teeth, if only because everyone around me these days seems to have brilliant white teeth, and mine aren't. They aren't that heavily stained, but have always seemed to veer slightly towards yellow especially close to the gums. So I'm sure they would look better cosmetically.

The trouble is that the dentist says that my two front fillings (which are white) are starting to discolour so I would need to have them replaced before they were whitened. My NHS dentist has already told me that it isn't clinically necessary to replace them and that in a general sense she wouldn't advise it because a bit more of the tooth would have to be drilled away in order to replace them.

Could anyone with experience advise me on whether or not to whiten bearing in mind my front fillings would have to be replaced too?

Nobody can advise. It all depends on what expense you’re prepared to go to in the pursuit of these white teeth. It’s entirely your choice.

You do need to be aware that once this crown has been done to match your natural tooth colour, you can’t later have them whitened so whatever the colour now is what you’ll be stuck with. It’s a now or never kind of job, but if you decide to go ahead, you’re signing up for the continued expense of whitening your natural teeth to keep them matching the crown and fillings.

The cheapest lowest maintenance option is to have your crown match your current teeth and just live with them as they are.

But the expensive high maintenance option gets you lovely bright white teeth.

I’m in an similar dilemma that I’m having composite bonding on my front teeth soon to disguise a diastema and I too wonder if I should whiten first.

Whitening will only whiten real teeth, not the filling. If you do go ahead then you’ll always have to have your teeth whitened to match the filling. Might be a better option to get veneers? At some point you’ll always have two shades of white on each tooth otherwise?