Can you explain how teeth whitening works?

Dr. Jackson: Absolutely. Especially at the beginning of a new year, people are interested in learning more about teeth whitening and how teeth whitening works. It’s another clean slate for the new year, right? Teeth whitening works in a couple of different ways. Sometimes coming and getting a professional cleaning will actually help to remove some of those surface stains. A lot of times, people don’t realize that what’s going on is that you actually need to have your teeth cleaned.

Beyond that, if you do have a little bit of yellowish stain that is  intrinsic in your teeth or beneath the surface layer of your teeth, teeth whitening products can help. What we offer here in the office is a professional strength whitening called Carbomil Peroxide. It gets into the little tubules and breaks down the staining within your teeth.

Carbomil Peroxide is completely healthy for your teeth. It’s not anything that’s going to be long-term harmful. That’s in comparison to some of the products out there that you can find, especially on social media sites, that can actually be harmful to your teeth. Some of those products cause some superficial scratching or scraping to your teeth. They are basically a little more abrasive than what is healthy for your teeth.

Can you talk a little bit about how the teeth whitening works long-term? Teeth whitening for life?

Certainly. We have a program in our office called Whitening for Life. That’s a program where you come in and we make some customized whitening trays for you, as long as your mouth is healthy enough. And you get some whitening gel when you come in. As long as you keep your regularly scheduled recall appointments every 6 months, we’ll give you a tube of whitening gel to continue whitening for as long as you’re a patient here with our office.