Icon may well deal with them, and nothing gets drilled.

White marks turn up after braces, from fluorosis, or as the very first stage of decay. They are usually harmless and almost always the thing people notice about their own smile. Icon takes them out in a single appointment.

Icon is a resin infiltration system made by DMG. A white mark is porous enamel — that porosity is what scatters the light and makes it look chalky. The resin soaks into those pores and fills them.

Once filled, light passes through the area as it does through the enamel around it, and the mark stops standing out. Nothing is drilled and no anaesthetic is needed.

1. Etching — a gel opens up the surface of the mark so the resin can get in.
2. Drying — which makes the mark show up at its most obvious.
3. Infiltration — the resin is applied and drawn into the porous enamel.
4. Curing — set hard with a light.
5. Polishing — the surface smoothed back flush.

It is worth asking about if you have:

• White marks left behind after braces came off
• Early decay that has not yet broken through into a cavity
• Fluorosis marks from childhood
• Any white patch you would rather not have drilled and filled

Not every mark responds, and deeper ones sometimes only improve rather than vanish. We will tell you honestly at the consultation what to expect.

• Nothing is drilled away, so healthy enamel stays where it is
• Thirty to forty-five minutes, one visit
• No injection, and nothing to recover from
• Halts early decay rather than merely covering it
• Nothing to maintain afterwards