Teeth whitening is the process of lightning the colour of the teeth. Whitening is often desirable when teeth become yellowed over time for a number of reasons, and it can be achieved by changing the intrinsic or extrinsic colour of the tooth enamel. The treatment is also known as bleaching. It needs to be stated that teeth bleaching is an aesthetic treatment.

However before you consider bleaching your teach, there are a few steps that must be followed.

  • Scaling, or tartar removal, has to be done up to one to two months before the whitening. If not, then we advise you to visit us firstly for scaling, and only after that for whitening. The treatments cannot be placed in the same day. A day or two are usually needed, in order to recover between treatments;
  • The patient must now have visible fillings on the front teeth, or crowns since they cannot be influenced by bleaching;
  • In case a patient wants a total change in oral appearance, then it is necessary to firstly whiten the teeth and the change the crowns with the new, lighter colour.

Disclaimer: Teeth bleaching is not recommended to people with sensitive teeth.

In Apex Dental Center we offer two different options for teeth whitening:

  1.  Alginate prints are taken from the upper and lower jaws. The prints are handed to our dental technician in order to make temporary aligners to be used at home. In a few days, the patient revisits in order to get the aligners and proper instructions, in addition to the low concentration gel suitable for home usage.

    The aligners are filled with a small drop of the gel in every tooth department and placed inside the mouth for approximately 40 to 60 minutes a day, for two weeks. 

  2.  Professional whitening

The professional whitening is usually done with a gel and either with or without a laser.

You can expect a two-session whitening in a one week period. On your first visit we set your current colour, in order to compare to the final results. After proper precautions, in two sessions of about 20 minutes, we place a high concentration gel (not suitable for home usage) and monitor the development. Thus, the patients starts with a 20 minutes session, the specialist washes the remaining and repeats. In a few days the process is repeated once again. Depending on sensitivity and results, the specialist is required to take a decision whether one or two additional sessions are needed during the visit.

Within a few days post treatment, it is likely for the patient to feel some sensitivity, which passes within two to three days. It is recommended, during this period, for the patient to use a tooth paste for sensitive teeth. Also we recommend you do not drink coffee, coloured drinks, citrus drinks, red wine. If you really need your coffee, then we recommend using milk to reduce the concentration of the coffee, also the usage of a straw. The recommended period is two weeks.

Innovations at Apex Dental Center

The steps followed above are still applicable. However, in addition we use a laser to activate the gel gradually on every tooth. The main difference is the lack of tooth heating since the laser is absorbing the gel. This method is safer to your teeth and enamel.

One to two months after the treatment, we recommend the patient to use proper whitening tooth paste in order to maintain their results. In order to help you, we are offering pastes that have passed our already high standards.

We can also recommend whitening pens, which consist low concentration gel, a few days a week, for 20 to 30 minutes.

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