LilSweetPea

Survived! - Virginia

Just did Zoom a few hours ago. I read many reviews and went in pretty much terrified but determined to have it done.
I had my teeth cleaned immediately before the Zoom treatment so I was worried I'd be extra sensitive. Well, they stuffed gauze everywhere to protect my gums, and I guess that must've been done well since I didn't feel my gums burn. The first 15 minute session was painless. The second 15 minutes towards the end I felt a single zinger...painful? YES. Bearable? Also yes. I let them know I felt one sharp pain for a few seconds and they told me during the third set if it gets so bad that I can't stand it, ring the bell for them and they can stop it, or simply remove the gel from the teeth that are being sensitive and continue treating the other teeth. I could feel my teeth getting more sensitive during the last 15 minutes--but it wasn't exactly painful until the last half--several of my front teeth were experiencing shooting pains, and it got progressively frequent, my whole body was tensed up. They came to check on me and probably saw me cringing and told me I had 5 minutes to go...I gave them the thumbs up to continue. It was painful but still bearable. It seems it gets progressively more painful though so I'm not sure I would've finished until the end if they told me I had 10 more minutes to go...since I'm sure at that point it would be super painful.

So...that was 9 hours ago. I had some painful zingers on the drive home. But it wasn't so bad that I couldn't run errands. I still drove out, took my vehicle for inspection, etc. and went out for dinner. Yes, I could eat. My teeth are still sensitive--I'd compare it to biting into a really cold popsicle, except you can't take your teeth back out. And every so often I'll get a painful zinger that makes me stop for a few seconds to recover. I wouldn't classify it as debilitating, although its definitely distracting and annoying. I'm more sensitive to cold afterwards so eating warm foods weren't an issue.

Oh yes, and the whole reason I went in the first place. My teeth ARE whiter. I can tell because Zoom does not whiten fillings, crowns, etc. Since my previous fillings matched the color of my teeth PRE-Zoom, I could compare my actual teeth now to the fillings. Its pretty obvious since the teeth with the fillings now look like they are two distinct colors--I will go and get that fixed later, but at least its proof of the color difference.

I consider myself lucky--some people described it as the worst pain ever, worse than childbirth. While I don't have children, I'm pretty sure I'm relatively fortunate in that this can't be anywhere near as painful as childbirth. It definitely wasn't pain free for me, but I was just glad I could function and talk relatively normally afterwards.