A smile means to me that you are secure with yourself
and confident enough to showcase that to the entire world.
My name is Shrena Nangia and I’m getting my teeth whitened today.
I’m 22 years old and I’m from Kathmandu, Nepal but I live in L.A.
My teeth are definitely an insecurity or at least something that I’m conscious about.
When I post a picture on social media I tend to smile with my mouth closed
so that they don’t get shown to the world.
And when I do smile with my teeth I make sure
to use a little app to make them brighter.
For as long as I can remember, my teeth have had a slight yellow tint to them.
But recently they have been a little bit more stained,
probably because of the really bad caffeine addiction that I have,
so I’m really excited to have my teeth whitened.
I feel like I’m definitely be more confident once my teeth have been whitened
because I’ll feel like I’ll be able to smile more
and I won’t have to rely on any apps to make me feel better.
I’m Dr. Erin Cohen.
And I’m Dr. Monica Madan.
And we are the founders of Beverly Hills Orthodontics.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles.
I went to the University of Washington for my orthodontic training.
I came back here to Los Angeles and within a year met Erin.
I grew up in a very small town in southwestern Pennsylvania
and I moved to New York City.
I stumbled into Columbia University for dental school.
We have a very well-rounded practice.
Our main service is Invisalign and Invisalign Teen.
We also offer teeth whitening.
A lot of patience love to teeth whiten.
Come right in, I’m Dr. Cohen.
Have a seat!
When I first met Shrena, when she walked in, I saw a lot of promise in her smile.
They could have been tolerated to be slightly whiter.
I’m a little nervous about having my mouth exposed for like an hour.
I do have a little spot up front where it is chipped,
so that could be a little sensitive.
We are going to start your bleach procedure, we are going to use Zoom
which is an in-office procedure that is about an hour long.
It’s about three sessions of 15 minutes each.
And you are going to be about 8-10 shades whiter than you are now.
We use the cheek retractors that will protect the patient’s tongue and lips
from also getting bleached and protective eyewear.
The active ingredient of the whitening gel is
hydrogen peroxide for the Zoom bleaching.
And there is amorphous calcium phosphate in there
that really helps re-mineralize and reduce sensitivity.
And then there is a light that activates it.
Teeth whitening does not damage teeth enamel because it is able to
bleach deeply into the tooth without taking away any of the structure.
Within three 15 minute sessions you’ve gone 8-10 shades lighter.
Oh my gosh it looks so good!
I absolutely loved it.
It was so much easier and quicker than I thought it was going to be.
My favorite part of the procedure was definitely the results.
As soon as I looked at the mirror it was kind of unbelievable, like I expected
it to be bright and fake looking, but the natural results really wowed me.
I felt so much more confident.
My least favorite part would definitely be the slight sensitivity.
I don’t feel the need to use a teeth whitening app anymore
because my teeth look bright and natural.
Shrena was a really great example of a great result for an average person.
She went to one of our brightest shades and that really was within the 45 minutes.
Right after the procedure you want to make sure that you don’t drink anything
that can stain, like coffee, red wine, tea, you know berries.
Those sort of things for about 24 hours.
So the after care process after you’ve had an office bleaching is really to judge
when you feel like you need a touch up.
If you notice your smile is dulling, you can come back for another in office treatment
but most commonly patients will take home a set of overnight
or day time bleaching trays and we can provide that with the gel solution.
I won’t be smilizing in my pictures in my social media anymore.
You will definitely be seeing a nice big smile.
Thank you so much for watching Refinery29.
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