Over time, teeth gradually yellow in color. If you drink coffee, tea or red wine, or if you smoke, your teeth will become even more stained and discolored.

With today's variety of smile whitening methods and technologies, your smile can easily be whitened to a brilliant lighter shade.  At this time we offer an at-home whitening system that uses trays and prescription whitening gel.

• The trays fit very intimately to your mouth to provide excellent uniform whitening coverage, comfort, and protects the gum tissue from excess whitening material.
• Once fabricated, these trays can be used indefinately.   Therefore, any time you wish to whiten in the future, you have all of the tools you need.  This allows you to maintain the brighter shade as you need or desire.
• When more whitening material is needed, it is very inexpensive and can be obtained from us.  Over time, this at-home whitening system is very cost effective.  

How It's Done

At-Home Whitening
At-home or take-home whitening is accomplished by wearing custom-made trays filled with prescription whitening gel.  These trays can be worn for several hours at a time for several days in a row for dazzling results.

Patients are scheduled for an evaluation to ensure you are a good candidate to have your smile whitened.  This will be followed by impressions or molds of the upper and lower teeth.  From these impressions, custom trays for the teeth are formed.  The trays are extremely thin, virtually invisible and can be worn during the day or night.

At the next appointment, the trays are delivered, and checked for a proper fit. A member of the dental team then shows the patient how to apply the prescription-quality whitening gel into the trays.  General instructions and frequently asked questions will be addressed as well as further questions you may have.

Recovery/Post-op Expectations:

Some people who undergo whitening may experience some sensitivity in their teeth. This sensitivity can be prevented with the use of a prescription toothpaste that we will give you prior to you starting the whitening procedure.  If sensitivity does occur, it should dissipate after a 1-2 day rest between whitening applications or with the use of desensitizing products that we can also provide.

Complications:

There are no known complications associated with smile whitening.  We do however suggest that pregnant women avoid the whitening process, though there is no evidence of any whitening product having adverse effects on the unborn child.

Am I a Candidate?

If you have teeth that are stained, yellowed or discolored due to age, drinking coffee, tea, red wine or cola, you are an ideal candidate to have your smile whitened. 

It is important to know that any fillings, crowns or other restorative dental materials will not whiten.  Only natural tooth structure responds to whitening.  Should you still wish to brighten your smile, these fillings and/or crowns can typically be redone and we can then offer you a stronger and even more cosmetic dental restoration as technology continues to improve our dental materials.