ICON resin infiltration is a minimally invasive restorative option to treat discoloration on your teeth. White spots can occur after a child has had braces, but these discolorations can also be caused by high fever, dental trauma, fluorosis, or decay. The spots you see are the result of imperfect enamel crystal structure and can be more porous than the rest of the tooth. The lesions often look white because there is a scattering of light at the subsurface of the demineralized enamel. They can also easily pick up stains and turn yellow or brown.

The ICON resin infiltration treatment fills in these porous areas, improving their appearance and protecting the tooth from decay. The resin closes up pores in the affected area to stop deteriorating acids and minerals from entering the tooth any further, effectively reinforcing the enamel and fending off the potential development of a cavity.

Benefits of resin infiltration include:

• Resin infiltration is much less invasive and less expensive than alternatives such as fillings or veneers.
• White spots sometimes look worse after bleaching, but when treated with ICON, the spots will usually fade to become similar to the natural tooth enamel.
• The treatment is quick, virtually painless, and doesn't require anesthesia - you can immediately return to your everyday routines after the procedure.

ICON Resin infiltration is minimally invasive, and no drilling or local anesthetic injection is involved. Although this dental treatment is simple, it takes ten cycles of applying and curing the resin to reach the final result. The full appointment will take anywhere between 1-1.5 hours. We recommend using our movie goggles for this appointment to help make it go by faster. Although this is typically a painless procedure, very rarely some patients may start experiencing sensitivity before we reach the tenth cycle. In this scenario, we will stop the treatment and schedule another appointment to finish the process comfortably unless the desired effect has already been achieved which is the most common scenario.

The procedure involves the following steps:

• Cleaning and etching: We will clean your teeth to remove plaque and tartar, then use an etching solution to open the pores of the outermost layer of affected enamel. The etchant is then washed and the tooth is dried. The white spots are then treated with an ethanol solution to dry out the lesion and pores. This step is repeated either ten times or until the desired results are obtained.
• Resin application: The lesions are then infiltrated with the ICON-infiltrant for three minutes (allowing for capillary action) and cured with UV light. Finally, we remove excess resin and cure the teeth.

Resin infiltration is ideal for children and teens (and adults!) who currently have stains on their teeth. This treatment is considered a long-term solution that can last anywhere from two to six years or longer and does not typically require re-treatment like teeth whitening solutions.  Unlike fillings or veneers, you can even bleach your teeth after having this treatment, although you should verify with your dentist before any whitening procedure.