In-Office dental bleaching efficacy assessment in function of the light exposure regime by digital colometric reflectance spectroscopy

In-office dental bleaching has been subject of several studies. Generally those studies quantify through visual analysis, the shade reduction of the teeth submitted to different bleaching protocols (light sources, bleaching agent concentrations and irradiation time). The objective of this work is the determination of the influence of four irradiation protocols on the obtainment of better aesthetic results using a colorimetric spectrophotometer that quantifies color changes in each situation imposed. Forty bovine incisors were selected in function of similar anatomic characteristics; a concentrated coffee solution was used to stain the teeth. A commercial spectrophotometer was used to measure the color changes during evolution of the experiment (stain and bleaching phases) and the obtained data was analyzed by the ANOVA test. The obtained data showed the evolution of teeth color during the staining period, as well as, the color reduction that each bleaching protocol achieved. Based on our findings it is possible to conclude that bleaching protocols with larger irradiation periods did not showed significant differences when compared with shorter irradiation protocols, in that way the use of protocols with 30 min or more of consecutive irradiation are not clinically justified and also can cause several side effects.