A Brighter, Whiter Smile
A lot of patients come in and ask us about whitening their teeth, “How can I make my smile brighter?” A lot of times they also ask us, “What is the difference between going to a dental office and having your teeth whitening, as opposed to using over the counter whitening toothpaste or Crest Whitestrips, or one of those products you can get at any pharmacy?” The number one difference would be the concentration of the material we use. At home, you have to use a lesser concentration because you have the options of doing damage to your gums or increasing sensitivity. So here at the dental office we offer in office whitening, we use the Zoom system and what we actually do is we apply barriers to your gums. We protect every part of the oral cavity that is not being whitened. So the only focus of our whitening treatment are the teeth.
And so usually it’s about a 15 minute procedure and we can do up to three to four of those. And you can see up to six to eight shades whiter. Can the same effects be achieved at home? It can, but it’s going to take probably about three months to do it, as whereas in our office, we can achieve that in one day. And then a lot of times what we’ll do as well, is make you custom whitening trays that you take home. And after you’ve done the treatment in the office, you can maintain that smile at home, by doing a few nights a month, you can do a whitening treatment at home to maintain the brightness. That’s I would say is the biggest difference between in-office versus at home, is the strength of the material we use, how we apply it and how we can safely manage the tissue in your mouth to not be affected and only allow the teeth to be whitened.