[Matt Nejad]
[Dr. Matt Nejad] In this video, we're going to be covering three different methods of whitening including:
over-the-counter options, which consist of strips and/or gels mixed with lights, we're also going
to be covering in-office whitening methods which also often involve the use of lights, and the third
option, which is my favorite is custom-fitted trays that you're able to use to apply the gel precisely.
Strip-based whitening products are based on peroxide, which is very effective at whitening
your teeth, but they're located on a strip and what happens is when you place that strip on your teeth,
first of all it doesn't go all the way back to your molar so sometimes you have the issue of
not getting enough coverage and then the other major option is that you're not always getting
in between all the different contours of your teeth. So if you think of this like an analogy of
painting a picket fence, it's like you're painting the front surface, but you're not getting the sides
and what happens with a lot of patients is they use the strips and their complaint is that the
teeth are dark in between or still stained because the gel was not able to adequately penetrate there.
Also the gel is based on regular hydrogen peroxide, which only has a duration of action for about 30
minutes so you have to use a higher concentration, but lower duration which is not my preferred
method of whitening. There's a whole other class of whitening products over the counter, which I'm sure
you've seen online, on social media and these are those products that involve a loosely fitting tray
with the light and the idea is that the light activates the gel and whitens your
teeth more effectively and the problem is that there's absolutely no science to show that
the light does anything and if you understand peroxide, it is not a light-activated material.
You don't need to use light, there's no benefit to the light so these things are really gimmicky and
in numerous studies, what you see is that you get the same result with or without the light
because the true active ingredient is the peroxide gel. So my recommendation, stay totally clear from
those lights and just be aware that the gel is the active ingredient that's responsible
for the whitening, no advantage to using the light. A lot of patients think that in-office
whitening is the best gold standard whitening, but unfortunately, this isn't true. When a patient
asks me for in-office whitening, I always tell them that my recommendation is custom trays. The
reason is that in a one hour or half hour session, you can't really achieve that much whitening and
what happens is, instead of using a slow, safe method of application, instead we're using a
higher concentration to make up for this lack of time and that results in a lot of sensitivity and
unnecessary complication. Plus honestly, the results from one session aren't significant enough so you
need to do several repeat sessions so it ends up being too expensive and too costly with added
risk that's unnecessary. Also, as I mentioned before, the gel is the active ingredient, not the light so
when someone uses the light, this has been studied and proven, that the light makes no difference. In
one specific study, they looked at two different groups, one group that got the whitening with the
light and the other group with just the whitening gel alone and what they found was after one week
when they retested the shades, both groups had the same results so the light made no difference,
but immediately after the whitening session, the light did make the teeth look a little bit whiter
because it dried them out and when teeth get dry, they look white so you get a very temporary, less
than one week benefit from using the light, but it's not actually performing any permanent,
long-lasting whitening or change of tooth color. My favorite method of whitening is with custom trays
and there's been a wealth of research on this and it's been studied to be safe and effective
and it can work so well if you follow the protocol. With these custom trays, you get the benefit that
the trays keep the gel on your teeth, they keep saliva off and what happens is, you're able to do a
lower concentration of gel and make up for it with a longer duration. That's why I always recommend
sleeping with these trays overnight, using a 10 percent version of carbamide peroxide, though for
some people, you might need to modify that for various reasons and you can do a little bit
higher concentration with a little lower treatment time if it's absolutely necessary, but I always
prefer to do the overnight approach, two nights on, one night off and you get really good, really
long-lasting results this way with absolutely no long-term complications reported in the literature.
Most patients also don't get too sensitive from this though everybody's different and sometimes you
do have some scenarios that you need to compensate for. When making the trays, a
very important step on the model, because when we make your whitening trays we have a stone model
of your mouth and when we make it, what I like to do is take a very sharp instrument and accentuate
your gum line, so that when the tray is made, it has a little pressure point around each tooth,
which makes the seal extra tight and again aids in giving us the best results by keeping the gel
on your tooth and prevents it from leaking out, so this is one of those tips that if you've tried,
you know it's the best way to make the whitening tray and if you combine all these different things
together, you get the best recommended way to make your whitening tray. So if you're not getting the
results you like with your whitening trays, just keep in mind that they're not all created equal.
[Thanks For Watching! Click Here To Subscribe]
[Matt Nejad]