Many factors contribute to stained teeth, including aging and certain medications. Various habits which contribute to teeth staining include smoking and drinking coffee, soda, tea, or red wine. The degree of whitening you can expect from a whitening or bleaching procedure does indeed vary; however, in every case we do notice a whiter and brighter result.
Depending upon your habits and the passage of time following the procedure, the whiteness of your teeth may “fade back” a bit. The beauty of having take-home trays is that when you notice that your smile could be whiter, you can wear your take-home trays for a session or two to achieve the results that you had before. We include take-home trays with our Zoom! Whitening system so that you can achieve the brightest smile possible. If you are interested in having this procedure done please contact us.
In-Office Whitening 
Zoom in-office tooth whitening is a procedure designed to lighten the color of my teeth using a combination of a hydrogen peroxide gel and a specially designed ultraviolet lamp. The Zoom treatment involves using the gel and lamp in conjunction with each other to produce maximum whitening results in the shortest possible time. During the procedure, the whitening gel will be applied to my teeth and my teeth will be exposed to the light from the Zoom lamp for three (3), 20 minute sessions. During the entire treatment, a plastic retractor will be placed in my mouth to help keep it open and the soft tissues of my mouth (i.e., my lips, gums, cheeks and tongue) will be covered to ensure they are not exposed to either the gel or light. Lip balm (SPF rating 30+) may also be applied as needed and I will be provided an ultraviolet light filter for my eyes. After the treatment is completed, the retractor and all gel and tissue coverings will be removed from my mouth. Before and after the treatment, the shade of my upper-front teeth will be assessed and recorded. We also provide take home whitening trays with our Zoom! procedure to maximize the whitening potential. If you are interested in finding out if you are a good candidate for the Zoom! In-Office Whitening procedure, please contact us.
Take Home Whitening
The advantage of the take-home system is that you are not in the dental office for an appointment lasting about two hours. In this system, impressions of your teeth are taken to make custom whitening trays. When the trays are delivered, instructions on using the whitening gel are provided. We initially provide you with 4 tubes of gel but we have extra whitening gel in our office for purchase as needed. We recommend that patients use the trays once or twice daily for over a week. In rarer cases we may recommend the trays be used for up to six weeks. This whitening system is dependent upon the cooperation and motivation of patients. If you have an interest in the home whitening procedure please contact us.
Offering Our Patients a Boost
For those who have whitening trays for use at home, we offer the ability to whiten in our office with a stronger bleaching gel than you have been able to use at home. Following a preventive visit, at the same appointment time, we can provide to you this boosting whitening procedure lasting 35 minutes for $35. Patients find their teeth to be noticeably whiter and brighter following their cleaning and boost whitening. If you are interested in this whitening program, please contact us. Many patients have been very satisfied to have this additional option for whitening.
Whitening Prior to Crowns and Veneers
Many patients ask if the available whitening systems also whiten existing dental work like crowns, fillings, and veneers. The whitening medications affect only natural tooth structure. As a result, existing dental work does not change color. Since this is true, existing dental work may look yellower following teeth whitening. Some consideration must be given to this fact.
Along the same lines, if patients are considering dental care, particularly in the front of the mouth, they should consider if they would ever want to whiten their teeth. If patients do believe they would want to whiten their teeth someday, that decision may be best made prior to having fillings, bonding, crowns, veneers, or laminates done in the front of the mouth. It makes sense to make these dental restorations following whitening. In that way the new restorations can match the color of the newly whitened teeth. It does make sense to take the final shade following whitening two weeks after completion of the whitening. This final shade most closely defines the color of the teeth for the longest period of time.
If you have an interest in whitening your teeth, or in getting some dental work done in the front of your mouth, we invite you to contact us. We work very hard to not only make the results look nice. We also work hard to assist in making your investment last a long time. Please do contact us.
