Hales Corners
Teeth Whitening

While there are a number of different teeth whitening products out there, they all use the same basic ingredients, called “peroxides.” Peroxides, such as carbamide peroxide and hydrogen peroxide, react to the presence of organic stains on your enamel. When peroxide comes into contact with a stain, it breaks the chemical bond that holds it onto your tooth,  “bleaching” it away.

There are a number of reasons you should choose professional teeth whitening from a cosmetic dentist rather than an over-the-counter kit. First, you’ll get much better results with professional-grade products. At our office, Dr. Keeling will design whitening trays to fit your teeth perfectly and give you an evenly-whitening smile.
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Choosing a professional whitening kit is also much safer. Some over-the-counter kits have extremely high levels of peroxide, which can cause issues like tooth sensitivity, or even damage your gums. Additionally, some “teeth whitening” products like charcoal toothpaste can actually cause permanent damage to your teeth. 
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To ensure that you get the best possible results and that you protect your smile from damage, we recommend that you come to DK Dental Care for a safe, effective take-home whitening treatment.

Yes! While in-office whitening is faster because it uses a special UV light and a higher concentration of peroxide, take-home whitening is just as effective. With take-home whitening, the same results are achieved, but the process is more gradual. This means that your whitening will be subtle, so nobody will need to know that you’re undergoing a dental procedure! Some patients prefer more gradual whitening because it is less obvious. If you want to get professional-grade whitening in the comfort of your own home, a take-home whitening kit from DK Dental Care is a great choice.

Most teeth whitening treatments can last up to 2-3 years. However, this depends on your level of oral hygiene and how well you take care of your teeth. Brushing and flossing regularly and coming in for six-month oral exams and cleanings will help keep your smile bright.

No, teeth whitening does not damage your teeth as long as it is performed under the guidance of a qualified and experienced professional dentist. People sometimes run into trouble with over-the-counter whitening trays that they buy at the drugstore. 

While there are a select few that are ADA-approved, most of them aren’t and that means that the ingredients or concentrations of ingredients in these products have not been tested for safety or abrasiveness. These could cause irritation or damage to your gums and teeth, especially if left on for too long or used too frequently.

At DK Dental Care, we take many precautions to ensure that your whitening treatment does not compromise your oral health or the condition of your teeth. We place cheek protractors and use a protective gel on your gums before applying the whitening agent to your teeth. 

This prevents the peroxide from coming into contact with your gums, which can cause irritation. Our take-home trays are custom-fabricated to fit over the shape and size of your teeth and don’t protrude over your gums. 

This prevents whitening gel from seeping up into your gums when you do at-home whitening treatments. However, drugstore whitening trays are one-size-fits-all, often causing this irritating and abrasive product to run over your gums for long periods, which is potentially harmful.

Scaling and polishing are performed during a routine dental cleaning and this can significantly reduce tooth stains by removing plaque and tartar buildup which contributes to a yellow sticky film around the teeth. 

Dental cleanings remove surface stains to reveal whiter teeth from scaling, brushing, and flossing so we may recommend that you get your teeth cleaned before a whitening treatment for a few reasons. 

The first is that you might realize that you don’t actually need a whitening treatment, you were just overdue for a dental cleaning. Sometimes the fresh and clean smile you’re left with after a dental cleaning is sufficient but those who have severe discoloration may still want something more intense. 

In that case, a dental cleaning is still recommended because it removes buildups of food particles and bacteria that can block the surfaces of your tooth enamel and prevent the whitening agent from penetrating your teeth. 

If you have tooth restorations like dental bonding, dental crowns, or fillings, then these will not respond to a whitening treatment. Getting a cleaning can optimize your whitening treatment to ensure that your natural teeth match your restorations.

If you have an event coming up very soon, then we recommend that you come in for a whitening consultation as soon as possible. While the in-office whitening treatment can be performed in a single hour-long appointment, you should still plan ahead and leave time for wiggle room for a few reasons. 

If we find any signs of oral health problems during your consultation, these will need to be resolved before we can perform a whitening treatment so you need to account for the time it could take to treat this issue.

Even if you are perfectly healthy and are getting an in-office treatment that gives you instant results after an hour, this could require multiple sessions to treat severe discoloration and we may need to space it out if you have sensitive teeth. Take-home whitening is a gradual whitening process so this takes about 2 weeks longer than an in-office whitening treatment.