Enamel Discolouration by Dr Chan Joon Yee an example of a case that may benefit from microabrasion Recently, we had a few patients turning up to consult us on redoing their bleaching. They have tried out a few expensive bleaching systems and were dissatisfied with the results. On examination, we found that they had enamel discoloration due to fluorosis. What's that? Well, it simply means that when the tooth was forming in the patients' mouth when they were young, too much fluoride got deposited onto the surfaces of the teeth, resulting in white and possibly even brown spots. Successful bleaching depends very much on what is causing the discoloration. We always tell our patients that bleaching works best when their teeth are uniformly yellow and not patchy. Very often, the white spots are not taken into account when people want to bleach their teeth. When you bleach your teeth, you are effectively whitening your teeth, so it should be obvious that white spots on your teeth won't go away no matter how much you bleach them. Teeth with white spots are not really as brown as they may appear. It's the contrast created by the white spots that make them look so brown. The surest way to solve the problem is to do bonding or veneers. However, in some cases, a much simpler and less expensive technique called microabrasion followed by bleaching may produce satisfactory results. What is microabrasion? The technique works on a very simple principle of "polishing off" the stained surface of your teeth using a special paste which will abrade without wearing out too much enamel. Most white or brown spots are microscopically thin. Hence, it is possible to remove them with microabrasion. After the spots have been removed and the colour of the teeth are rendered more uniform, bleaching can commence and the results will prove much better than bleaching alone. Like most other forms of treatment microabrasion is no miracle cure. There are some spots that are too thick to remove with microabrasion. For these cases, veneers may be indicated.