A San Francisco Cosmetic Dentist Procedure: Teeth Whitening

As a San Francisco cosmetic dentist, one procedure that we get many questions about is tooth whitening or “bleaching”. Of all the inquiries we get, probably the most Frequently Asked Question is “It is harmful to the tooth or not?”

Numerous studies have determined that there is no permanent damage to teeth when performed in a prescribed regimen. So it is very safe. In fact, tens of millions of whitening treatments have been accomplished over the last 20+ years and incidences of harm would have become apparent by this time. Frankly, I have never heard of any or we would simply not have patients undergo the procedure in our downtown San Francisco dentist offices.

The second FAQ we get about whitening is “what’s the best way to go?” For our San Francisco cosmetic dentist office, there are essentially three different approaches and they are all effective:

The First Approach: Using Over-The-Counter Products.

• Easy to use, inexpensive and a “quick fix” in our downtown San Francisco dentist offices.

The Advantages

• The patient doesn’t have to come to the office to obtain them.
• Less costly than what we offer.

The Disadvantages

• Much less concentrated and less potent, resulting in a much greater time period to get a result.

• May be limited in their coverage of the patient’s teeth. For instance, Crest WhiteStrips may only affect the front six or eight teeth.

The Second Approach: Having Customized Trays Made for Your Teeth for “At-Home Whitening”.

• We take an impression of your teeth in our San Francisco cosmetic dental office, then mold thin plastic shells that hold the whitening solution we dispense.
• The trays are worn for one to two hours per day (or overnight).

The Advantages

• We can monitor the progress and advise when to stop or continue.
• There are also several concentrations of the solution, which can adjust the number of days spent whitening.
• We usually see results within 10 days to 2 weeks right here in our downtown San Francisco dentist offices.
• They are less expensive than the third approach.

The Disadvantages

• More expensive than the over-the-counter products.
• It takes longer than the next procedure I’ll describe.
• The Patient may not like wearing the trays; and must come to my office several times.

The Third Approach: In-Home Whitening.

• The patient is in the chair for approximately 1–1.5 hours in our San Francisco cosmetic dentist office while we apply a highly concentrated solution to the teeth at intervals.

The Advantages:

• You get an instant result of brighter, whiter teeth.

The Disadvantages:

• The patient must be in the office for up to a few hours.

• The result can’t be monitored, meaning that “you get what you get” (although we often augment it with at-home trays).
• It’s the most costly of the three.

Conclusion.

As I said above, they all work. They all also can cause short-term sensitivity to the teeth but that almost always disappears within a day or two. If you have any further questions, please speak with any of our staff in our San Francisco cosmetic dentist office and they can answer them.