Advice on Teeth Whitening Discussion Thread

grey_lady

Tried the trays for two weeks I seem to recall, there was a small improvement but nothing like as good as the zoom. I feel a tad let down about Zoom because it was quite an upmarket cosmetic dentists in central London and they did say that the shade i had afterwards would be the shade that lasted.

welshdent

I think if that is what they said it was a tad misleading as I always say the shade stright off even with trays is usually going to drop off. If I were you I would go and see a GOOD dentist. Not one trying to sell you their products. You may have teeth that are just not amenable to whitening. Or you may have been using the wrong tray system. Were they custom made one for you or were they like a shop bought gum shield? I am not remotely a fan of the zoom system. You can get a high strength bleach applied in house that helps kick start things but even with that there is usually some additional home whitening that is needed. I never recommend the so called stock tray system and always get trays made specifically for each patient. Some people do not like the lack of instant results but then they need to be patient as this is the human body and as such it doesnt react instantaneously to such things

brook2jack

The thing with any whitening system is that there seems to be a limit to how much whiter you can get an individuals teeth. They will go whiter but it is impossible to say accurately how much whiter they will go and it doesn't matter what system you use they will not brighten up any further than this endpoint.

Many people have whitening done thinking they will get blindingly White teeth and this is not the case for everyone no matter if "power whitening" or the much more controlled tray system is used.

londondent

This is true. Whitening results vary from patient to patient.
in my experience i find that whitening works best on:
1. young patients
2. teeth that have been superficially stained by red wine, coffee, tea and smoking
3. certain shades of teeth (white and yellow) work better. Grey shades are impossible to predict an sometimes wont whiten at all.
4. teeth with plenty of enamel.

I always recommend the use of custom made trays and a low concentration (10-15% CP) gel for 2 weeks. Dont bother with power/laser (not actually a laser but a blue light which is not actually needed), it onlys causes sensativity and dissapointment once the colour fades.

Recently ive started using ENLIGHTEN whitening, with really good results. The company will guarentee a B1 result (whitest shade on the shade guide) for all patients, which i have found to be true.....so far. If you dont wont dissapointment then go for that! Does cost a lot tho.

Wonder what the other dentists think of this system??

welshdent

Do they use a special tray design? I normally go with optident or voco gel and get decent results with that. Similar views to me with what works well and how to do it

londondent

They utilise their own labs to construct super-sealed trays. They do seem much more carefully constructed then the dog-eared trays made at my normal lab.

I use optident as well, but have found results vary a lot.

welshdent

I think I saw a demo on them in Manchester at the bda. Looked a good system :-) like you I much prefer the custom tray approach!

pollypenny

Just been for a check up with new young dentist who has taken over the practice from the old one. He pointed pout that my teeth are whiter than my crown.

I wasn't very happy with the chair being tilted so my head was lower than chest, though. Awful back ache since and was dizzy at the time. Is this the new trend?

welshdent

New trend? No we tend to position the patient so that we can adequately see whilst not bending our back and neck too much. Sitting hunched or in uncofortable positions can cause major problems long term. I have seen my father crippled in pain caused by 30 years of leaning over. Patient positioning will vary from dentist to dentist as it personal to them but lying back is nothing new

Apollonia

welshdent wrote: »

I think I saw a demo on them in Manchester at the bda. Looked a good system :-) like you I much prefer the custom tray approach!

Welshdent, I went to a demo of the zoom system a couple of months ago and that included making the custom trays for the patient. Are there two different zoom systems? Or have they changed from standard/stock to custom trays? The patient then has the trays to take home to use with a 'top-up' bleach as required.

I only ask because your comments about tray systems imply that zoom does not use custom trays. I'm still in two minds about providing whitening but so many patients ask about it these days I am trying to see as many different ones as I can before deciding.