I finally caved in to pressure this week and got my teeth whitened.
There’s nothing better than a set of flashing white pearly whites, and I had been invited to have my teeth whitened several times, but my fear of pain had always stopped me.
Given Christmas is coming, and the statistics that recently came over my desk – teeth whitening is the most common cosmetic procedure globally, I thought: It’s time to step up and give it a go.
Clean white teeth only add to a great outfit, and they certainly help you look younger.
Dentist Dr Luke Cronin at Quality Dental in Sydney uses Philips Zoom Whitening, a technique using an LED light technology to activate some whitening gel that is carefully applied to the teeth, and gums are protected throughout.
A strange plastic piece was inserted into my mouth to protect everything, and keep my jaw in place. Dr Cronin then painted on the whitening gel and the LED light was fitted to my mouth. I put on some dark glasses and the whitening began.
Philips Zoom teeth whitening takes about 90 minutes all up, and in truth, there is nothing to be afraid of. During the process itself, which is done in blocks of about 20 minutes, I actually fell asleep – it was that easy and relaxing!
There are two reasons our teeth look less white as we age – one is the obvious one of too much coffee, red wine and smoking – definitely the first two in my case. The other is internal discolouration of the tooth, which is a combination of the dentin naturally yellowing as we age and the enamel covering the dentin becoming thinner and more translucent – thereby showing more dentin and making the teeth appear more yellow in colour.
I have to admit it hurt – but not until afterwards. I am never great with pain, and this was pretty painful, but Dr Cronin gave me a gel tube to use for about five hours after the treatment which I applied to each tooth as it hurt, and it immediately relieved the pain. I would have struggled without it.
Apparently everyone is different, and most people feel nothing. I was unlucky.
Having gone through the procedure, I much prefer it to the at-home kits which are messy, time consuming and frankly, a hassle. The beauty of the procedure I had is that the treatment is all over in an hour and a half, and it’s all done – there’s nothing messy to follow up with at home.
The price starts at $600, which is actually pretty reasonable given results generally last at least 2 years.
You can find out more here.
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