What's the best teeth whitening treatment?

In-office whitening or professional whitening is the most predictable and effective way to whiten your teeth when followed by an at-home whitener for 7-14 days. The whitening results in the office need to be stabilized by a high frequency at-home technique where the real whitening takes place.

The in-office whitening procedure starts with the isolation and protection of the gum tissue and lips. The whitening material is applied to the teeth, after which a high intensity light is focused on the teeth. Typically 3 passes of 8 minutes each are done to achieve the greatest whitening results, and with each pass new whitening material is placed. With this procedure the doctor can control the concentration of the material as well as how long the material is applied to achieve the most effective whitening results.

The at-home whitening can use whitening trays and they are made from molds of our patients’ teeth. Whitening material of different strengths is placed in the trays to apply the material to the teeth. The trays are worn for only 3 days at a time to reduce any patient sensitivity and followed up with ampoule whitening for maintenance.

With these procedures an improvement of anywhere from 4 to 8 shades can be expected depending on various factors, including the starting shade and extrinsic staining from foods that have a high “chromagenic” index, i.e. stain teeth such as soy sauce, tea, coffee, red wine, cigarette smoking.