Extreme Whitening

What You Need to Know

The first appointment for Extreme Whitening involves impressing for your take-home trays. Trays made by another office will not have been made using the stringent guidelines we use to ensure an ideal whitening environment.

The next session of Extreme Whitening will start with a bleaching in our office, which will “condition” the teeth to absorb oxygen more readily from the bleaching gel in your At-Home bleaching trays. Do not expect a tremendous color change from this “conditioning” first visit. Immediately following the “conditioning” visit, At-Home trays will be worn for 14 consecutive nights. After the 14th night, the final Extreme Whitening will be performed in our office, and will provide significant additional whitening over what will have already been accomplished. The result will be WOW!

If your final appointment is longer than 14 days from your first bleaching/conditioning appointment, continue bleaching at home until your final Extreme Whitening visit.

When you are finished with the entire Extreme Whitening process, place any remaining bleaching gel syringes in the refrigerator to extend the shelf-life.

Directions

Just before sleep, take one Aleve tablet (Naproxen Sodium). Aleve is an over-the-counter medication similar to Advil (ibuprofen), but lasts seven hours. Advil works very well also, but does not last as long for over-night bleaching. The whitening gel and trays may cause temporary inflammation of the teeth and gums, resulting in some soreness. Aleve and Advil are great anti-inflammatory medicines. This is very important to control the potential for inflammation and soreness. If necessary, you may take 2 Aleve tablets, but be careful not to take more than 3 in a 24-hour period. If your sensitivity exceeds what the medication can control, we will provide a prescription for extra strength fluoride that you can place in your trays for 5 minutes each morning (after tray removal, not before).

You will start your bleaching immediately before sleep. If you usually lie in bed watching television before sleep, wait until you are ready to sleep before using your bleaching trays.

Brush your teeth immediately before each bleaching session. It is important to brush immediately before bleaching because protein from your saliva will coat your teeth within minutes after brushing, and could inhibit the bleaching agent from whitening your teeth as quickly. This will help de-sensitize your teeth before bleaching.

Squeeze a dab of bleaching gel into each reservoir on the inner side of the outer walls of the trays (except in the very last molars). The gel is thick and the trays are flexible, so the gel will cause the outer rim of the tray to be pushed away from the gum line. After you put the tray in you’ll need to firmly push the tray back against the teeth to establish the seal of the tray at the gum line – this is very important.

If you’ve put too much gel in the tray, you’ll notice a significant amount of gel oozing out from under the edge of the tray. Take a Q-Tip and remove the excess, and next time use a little less gel. If you’ve put in too little gel, you will see through the clear tray some large open voids (little bubbles are OK) in the reservoirs not entirely filled with gel. If you see this, do NOT remove the tray. There is plenty of gel in the reservoirs to start your bleaching, but next time use a little more gel.

In the morning, after removing the trays, rinse your mouth with luke-warm water. Cold or hot water may be slightly uncomfortable to rinse with at that time. Clean the trays with Q-Tips under COOL running water.

If you have reasons that prevent wearing the trays at night (orthodontic retainers, an NTI, etc.), you may wear them during the day, as long as you wear them at least 2 hours. Try to wear them for 2 straight hours so you do not have to use new gel more than once a day.

What To Expect

Your teeth and gums may become sore and sensitive during the first 3-4 days of bleaching. Taking Advil every 4 hours during the day will help this. This sensitivity usually decreases after the first 3-4 days.

You may notice that your teeth start to look “funny”. They may develop white spots. The area of teeth near the gum may look dark (this is just because the rest of the tooth will have become so light by comparison). Or the color may look too opaque (chalky). Don’t fear. This will all even-out during the final Extreme Whitening visit and the two weeks after you stop bleaching. You may find that your lower teeth do not lighten as quickly as your upper teeth. This is because the lower teeth are smaller, the enamel is thinner, and the reservoirs will be smaller. Again, do not fear. The final Extreme Whitening visit will whiten them beautifully.

Permanently Maintaining Your New White Tooth Color

All natural teeth darken with time. It’s normal. And what accelerates this darkening is abrasives in toothpaste. Imagine you have a car with a new shiny white paint job, and you get some oil on the paint. Water alone won’t get off the oil. If you’re smart, you’ll use a very mild soap in water to dissolve the oil and leave the surface shiny.

But what if you used a kitchen cleanser like Comet or Ajax? Sure, that would get off the oil, but it would leave the paint dull. Not only would the paint be dull, but it would accumulate dirt and stain quickly. And after a year, the paint in this area would be darker because the surface roughness would allow stains to soak INTO the paint itself.

Additionally, you should wear the bleaching trays while you sleep, at least one night every four months as additional protection again darkening. Wearing the trays one night every four months will keep your teeth a very stable color indefinitely, however, if you want to keep them at an even brighter white indefinitely, you may wear the bleaching trays more often.

So, if you’ve just GOT to have your teeth absolutely the whitest they can be indefinitely, you may bleach more often than one night every four months – you may even choose to bleach one night every month. Follow these instructions and your teeth should always stay white and bright.

Other Important Bits of Information

During the two weeks of at-home bleaching, stay away from staining foods and drinks. Any food or beverage, which would permanently stain a white shirt or blouse, could also stain your teeth. If possible, when drinking a staining beverage, it may help to keep the beverage off the outer surface of the teeth by carefully drinking through a straw. Smoking should also be held to the very minimum during the bleaching process.

On your final Extreme Whitening visit, we will apply a glossy clear protective coating on your teeth, and you will not need to avoid staining foods after that visit.

Most people will experience mild to moderate discomfort for the first 24 to 48 hours after the last appointment. Even though we have placed a “sealer” over your teeth, you will most likely experience “zingers” and want something stronger for pain relief. We will prescribe something appropriate, but please understand this will subside within 48 hours.

If possible, do not skip nights when bleaching. We find that this slows down the whitening process.

If you have severe tetracycline or fluorosis staining, you should wear the trays for three weeks rather than the usual two.

Store your bleaching trays safely. Keep them in the case provided. Keep them away from heat – heat will distort them. Don’t leave them in the hot car. Don’t put or wash them in warm or hot water. Keep them away from your dog. Dogs seem to think that bleaching trays are chew-toys.

Most importantly, place the trays carefully in the case. When you shake the case, you should feel that the trays are loose in the case. If they are not, and they are being bent inside the case, this will distort and totally destroy the trays.

We know you are going to be thrilled with your Extreme Whitening result, but only if you are able to comply with the above instructions – they are important. If you have any problems or questions, call us right away.