What makes Zoom! teeth Whitening so special is that it is designed to achieve impressive results in a single session. This treatment can lighten the color of teeth by several shades in about an hour by repeating the whitening process three times in a one-hour appointment. Even patients with severe discoloration see outstanding improvement with Zoom! teeth whitening treatment. However, some may continue to enhance their results by following up with professional home whitening after their initial session.

Zoom! teeth whitening is an accelerated system that utilizes light to maximize the effects of a bleaching solution. This process is powerful, so should be done only once a year. Good oral care habits and regular checkups and cleanings can reduce the speed of new discoloration.

Teeth whitening is notorious for being uncomfortable. There are two reasons why those strips you can buy at the drugstore may cause discomfort. One is because they do not protect the gums. Even though the concentration of peroxide in the whitening gel is low, direct contact with the gums causes irritation in nerve roots.

Another reason that discomfort known as “zingers” may occur with teeth whitening is that, for the peroxide solution to work, it seeps into the pores in enamel. This is inevitable even with Zoom! treatment. However, some patients sail right through their procedure without a single “zing!” Most describe their appointment as easily tolerable. Because a plastic mouthpiece holds the lips open wide for the duration of the 45-minute treatment, patients may find the device uncomfortable. It may help to start moisturizing the lips days before treatment so they are softer and more flexible.

Teeth whitening can cause temporary tooth sensitivity, yes. This happens because the peroxide used to remove stains seeps into deeper layers of enamel. The nerves of teeth are not far beneath the layer of dentin that is just under enamel. Having peroxide so near to the dentin, nerves can become more reactive. Toothpaste for sensitive teeth may help reduce the discomfort. You may also want to avoid hot and cold beverages for a few days.

If there’s one sure bet, it’s that your teeth will stain again. You could stop drinking coffee and red wine. You could stop eating blueberries and raspberries and, gasp, dark chocolate. But who wants to do that? There’s no “set” duration for how long your teeth will stay bright and white. If your teeth became stained by coffee and the like, they will become stained again. But you don’t have to give up that glass of red wine — when you feel your teeth are becoming a little dingy again, simply come back in and we’ll whiten them again. Or we can give you another supply of whitening gel for your at-home trays. Home hygiene also makes a difference. Using whitening toothpaste (ADA approved, of course), and brushing for two minutes twice daily is important. Plus, coming in for twice-yearly professional cleanings with the team at The Smile Centre is equally important to keeping your teeth their whitest.

At The Smile Centre our Zoom! in-office teeth whitening treatments are meant as single, stand-alone treatments. Come in with stained teeth and walk out in an hour with teeth up to eight shades whiter. If you opt for home teeth whitening, how many nights you wear your custom-made trays at home will depend on how stained your teeth were at the start. We recommend most of our Sarasota patients wear their trays at home for 30 minutes a day for two weeks.

There isn’t any pain whatsoever during whitening treatments, whether in-office or at home. Because teeth whitening agents penetrate the enamel of your teeth, your teeth can be a little sensitive to hot and cold foods and drinks for a brief period, but this passes quickly in a day or two. If you have particularly sensitive teeth, be sure to tell us as we can desensitize your teeth with potassium nitrate or calcium phosphate before we perform the whitening.

There aren’t any restrictions on what you can eat or otherwise do with your teeth following your Zoom! whitening treatment. Because the hydrogen peroxide whitening agent penetrates the enamel of your teeth to break loose and remove the stains, your teeth may be somewhat more sensitive to hot and cold for a day or two after your Zoom! treatment. But that resolves quickly. Otherwise, do whatever you like. But be sure to smile a lot, as your teeth are now bright white and gleaming!

Like our fingerprints, our tooth enamel is unique to the person. The color varies slightly, as does the porosity of the enamel. Fortunately, most staining occurs in the enamel and responds well to teeth whitening using peroxide-based gels. There is another type of staining that occurs in the dentin, the layer behind your enamel. This staining usually is the result of a drug reaction — tetracycline is the main culprit here — and it cannot be whitened. The way to cover this type of staining is to have our team cover the stained teeth with porcelain veneers. These are the culprits behind your stained teeth:

• Foods — Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, even dark chocolate all contain pigments that can make their way into tooth enamel.
• Drinks — Coffee, tea, red wine, darker fruit juices, and cola drinks leave stains.
• Smoking — Nicotine makes the enamel yellow.
• Genes — Darker enamel tones are usually genetic.
• Drugs — Tetracycline was a popular antibiotic in the 60s, but it was found to make the dentin in teeth grey. There are now recommendations to not use tetracycline with children due to this problem.
• Fluorosis — If a person has too much fluoride, or if it is ingested, it can cause fluorosis, which stains the teeth a grey color. Despite the misinformation spread around the Internet by anti-fluoride crusaders, this is very rare.

This is a question of the type of staining. If your teeth have a grey tint due to a reaction to tetracycline when you were eight, teeth whitening won’t have much effect on those stains in the dentin layer. The peroxide simply cannot penetrate deeply enough to fully remove stains in the dentin. That’s a case where the patient would be better served by having our dentists place porcelain veneers over the teeth or apply bonding on one or two stained teeth. But if your staining is due to foods, drinks, or cigarette smoking, these stains are in the enamel. That makes it a perfect scenario for our Zoom! teeth whitening at The Smile Centre.