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FAQs

Real World Questions Answered.

After having performed well over 5,000 and counting “Customized” Teeth Whitening Treatments – The following represent the MOST OFTEN ASKED QUESTIONS

~Stephen Robert

Why is Age so Relevant to Creating a Bright White Smile?

Teenagers:  who have not worn traditional metal braces, will likely experience immediate and dramatic results from whitening due to little wear and tear and lack of deeply embedded stains on their teeth…

Patients in their 20’s – 30’s:  The teeth begin to show a yellow or sometimes light brownish cast.  Whitening will generally produce immediate and dramatic results, again assuming traditional metal braces were not worn during the teenage years.

Patients in their 40s:  The yellow gives way to a more brownish appearance, sometimes a dark brownish appearance contingent on diet, habits, lifestyle, and dental oral hygiene maintenance.

It’s possible that more than one visit will be required to achieve a bright white smile.

Patients in their 50s:  The teeth have absorbed a host of stubborn, deeply embedded stains, and quite possibly micro cracking of the teeth which collect large amounts of stains.

These stubborn, deeply embedded stains can prove to be difficult, but not impossible, to remove.  Plan on a treatment program that will involve more than one visit.

Note:  Regardless of what may be required or desired, one treatment at Whiten Up Today will make a significant difference in the appearance of your teeth and smile, often resulting in 100% satisfaction to that particular patient’s smile standard.

How Long will my Whitening Treatment Last?

Such a simple question – yet the answers can vary significantly depending on who you ask!

The American Dental Association says anywhere from 6 months to 2 years.

THE FACTS: Teeth Whitening is a cosmetic treatment – much like coloring your hair or receiving Botox injections, which require routine maintenance and touch-ups.

Teeth Whitening is no exception!

The truth is:  life fights against us having & maintaining white teeth.  If somehow one could manage to NEVER – eat, drink or expose your teeth to smoke – whitening would virtually LAST FOREVER!

BUT WAIT!

Most whitening treatments claim “It will last for years”…

Well sure, in the sense that it probably will take years for your teeth to regress all the way to where they were prior to them being whitened.

But, That’s not what you are really asking! Truth is, you’re looking at your new white smile – amazed at how beautiful your teeth look – and what you really want to know is:

HOW LONG WILL THEY LOOK THIS GOOD? 

Now that’s where diet, lifestyle, habits and the porosity of your teeth all factor into your ability to keep stains from adhering to your teeth.

It’s not rocket science to achieve AND maintain Healthy White Teeth!

Whiten Up Today carries several *products to maintain white teeth  (Guaranteed to be effective!)  in between recommended Smile High Club touch-ups once every 6 months.  *(These products are FREE, or better stated, are INCLUDED in your treatment price!)

Currently, the only “One and Done” treatment on the market today to achieve and maintain a perfect white smile and teeth resistant to staining agents, would be to contact an Experienced Cosmetic Dental Professional and inquire as to time/cost of Porcelain Veneers or Zirconia Crowns.

How White can I get my Teeth?

First of all, understand that all tooth colors are based on 3 Criteria:

  • Hue – The underlying color of existing teeth
  • Chroma – The Intensity of the underlying color
  • Value – Black/White value of a tooth’s appearance or how bright it appears to be

During the consultation phase, Whiten Up Today! will evaluate the “Hue” of every patient’s teeth, in order that we may evaluate just “How white can we get that patient’s teeth”.

Results will always vary on certain factors,  but one that we consider to be most important is “Hue Color”.

People who have a “Lighter Undertone” have higher degrees of whitening results than people with a “Brownish Undertone”.

For people with a “Gray Undertone” Whitening Treatments are less noticeable – but still effective!

Patients with a Dark Brown or Gray Hue might consider an Ultra Platinum WhiteSpa Treatment in order to lighten the underlying color of the teeth.

I understand that Dentists rarely, if ever, perform Teeth Whitening Treatments, however I was under the notion that you had to be “Dental Assistant/Technician” to do Teeth Whitening?

Teeth Whitening was invented/discovered in the 1960’s..quite by accident..by a Dentist.

However, whitening one’s teeth really didn’t go mainstream until the early 1990’s when Dr.Bill Dorfman, a dentist,  founded the company Discus Dental which began marketing Teeth Whitening Systems to dentists to increase their office revenue by offering Whitening Treatments to their patients..

As a result of dentists being the first commonly known group to offer whitening, it has become quite a common misconception that one ‘must be a dentist’ to perform a Teeth-Whitening Treatment.

In actuality, dental offices are usually a very good choice to have the treatment performed, but certainly not the only one.

How Much Does it Cost?

Wow!  What an incredibly simple decision it would be if the cost of the Whitening Treatment were the ONLY CONSIDERATION in the decision-making process…

In addition to cost, other equally important factors should be considered in the decision:

1.  How effective is the treatment?  (aka  Does it work?)

2.  How much time will you spend in achieving healthy looking white teeth?

Because if it doesn’t work, in addition to wasting your valuable time,  we could give it to you for FREE and it still wouldn’t be worth it…

Every consumer has 2 valuable and limited resources that need to be considered and evaluated prior to any purchase – TIME & MONEY – and nobody likes to waste either one!

The Teeth Whitening Industry has an overwhelmingly endless array of options.

Consumers will spend 2.5 Billion dollars this year in an attempt to have whiter teeth.

Far too many current Whiten Up Today! patients have shared with us the frustration and disappointment in time and money wasted on “Informercial” Whitening Products, Internet, and “Deal of the Day” purchases promising whiter teeth!

In summary, had the claims & promises been met – they wouldn’t be our clients,  SO, BUYER BEWARE!

We understand that you can get your teeth whitened at the mall for $45, or go to a tanning salon with no online customer reviews and receive an hour long generic whitening treatment for $99, BUT…

In all likelihood, you will be wasting those oh so precious resources – Time and Money!

That’s why we invented the LuminxBrightSmile Treatment/Procedure.

I’ve heard teeth whitening will damage the enamel of my teeth! Is that true?

Studies have been done on this, and it’s been proven that the chemicals in teeth whitening agents do not cause any softening or wearing of the enamel on the teeth!

Acid. and acid alone, is the only element in whitening products, that can damage the gums or the structure of the teeth.

For this reason, Whiten Up Today! highly recommends that you DO NOT USE WHITENING STRIPS!

These products work by dissolving/removing a layer of enamel to show the new white teeth.

If you have overused Whitening Strips and now feel you have overly sensitive teeth – contact your dentist – and see if the use of a prescription toothpaste called Prevident 5000 will help re-strengthen the enamel of your teeth.

CONSUMER ALERT: 

Whitening gels – because they’re not regulated – are where many treatment providers try to save money!

Whitening gel is expensive when it’s purchased from a USA Distributor, FDA Registered, Fresh (no more than 7 Days old when applied to your teeth) and PH Balanced.

Foreign purchased (typically China & India) and outdated/expired whitening gel (often sold on the internet), while very inexpensive – will not whiten the teeth as well!

And will increase the likelihood of painful sensitivity after the treatment!

Why does your treatment method cause less sensitivity than other treatments I’ve done?

Two Reasons:  

1.  We have desensitizing agents in the whitening gel to help alleviate sensitivity, and we also pretreat the teeth with a blend of potassium nitrate (an ingredient in Sensodyne), calcium phosphate and fluoride.

2.  Based on your answers and information derived from your “Accessed Sensitivity Level” (A.S.L.) completed by you prior to the whitening consultation, we actually will quantify and categorize your A.S.L. and then select the appropriate Treatment parameters (Laser Intensity/Whitening Cycles/Whitening Gel Compound) that will allow you to attain maximum whitening results with minimal or no sensitivity.

Why does your treatment whiten so well?

Two Reasons:

1. We only utilize the Beyond Polus Laser Advanced Whitening Accelerator awarded the #1 Whitening Accelerator Lighting System 13 years in a row by the highly trusted and respected organization “The Dental Advisor.”

2. We only utilize the Luminex Bright Smile Teeth Whitening procedure.

It’s main attribute is the anti-gingival whitening gel. (the complete list of organic ingredients contain in our gel is proprietary to Whiten Up Today.)

Furthermore, it’s very important that the gel be fresh. (no more than 7 days old and made to a very precise level of viscosity not too thin, not too thick.)

When done correctly, this will greatly enhance your whitening results as well as considerably mitigate any sensitivity you may have.

The gel forms microscopic bubbles that permeate deeply into the teeth, dissolving stain molecules, revealing your natural shade of white teeth that have been hidden and dulled by surface stains.

I’ve had my teeth whitened several times at several different places offering a variety of treatments. Why do they look so great for a few days up to a month, then not so great. Why is that?

3 main factors contribute to how long whitening lasts:

  1. Your personal habits/lifestyle/ diet.
  2. Your oral hygiene routine.
  3. The porosity of your teeth.

At Whiten Up Today, we offer the deepest, longest lasting, Whitening treatment on the market today.

With that said, we generally recommend that once a client achieves their desired whitening level…that a routine Smile High Club touch up be done approx. every 6 months.

Now given the 3 previously mentioned factors, this can vary widely between clients.

REMEMBER, Whitening like any other cosmetic treatment..skin..hair..etc..will not last forever!.

It’s not a “magic bullet” one and done treatment.

That being said, with today’s technology and whitening products to maintain your bright smile, IT ISN’T ROCKET SCIENCE TO KEEP THEM WHITE, BRIGHT, & POLISHED!

Will my teeth look TOO White or unnatural?

No – Real teeth can’t look too white or unnatural.

They just look beautifully white – a healthy natural PEARL WHITE!

If you have seen people with what appears to be “over-bleached teeth”, what you saw was some form of Dental Restoration.

(False Teeth/Crowns/Veneers/Lumineers that were made too white!)

Remember:  One Person’s “TOO White” is another’s “Just Right”!

Is age a factor in how white I can get my teeth?

Yes, especially if you are a “First Time Teeth Whitener.”

The older we get, the longer our teeth have been exposed to life’s staining agents.  So in essence – the Further up the Whitening Shade Guide we need to travel.

Additionally, as we age, the mineral content of our teeth diminishes over time-which is a factor of how white teeth can get.

Are there any simple/everyday things I can do to keep my teeth white longer after a whitening?

Absolutely!

Inclusive with your “Take Home” Instructions and whitening maintenance recommendations (Which are designed specifically for a patient, based on the information we receive from each patient’s “Smile Profile”) are a list of “No Cost/Practical” steps every whitening client can practice every day.

Is your treatment effective on Veneers, Crowns and Porcelain?

Well, Yes and No…

Our treatment will remove the surface stains off of any dental restoration procedures a client may have had (Yes,  these too are subject to life’s everyday stains).

However, since they are not porous, like natural teeth, they will not stain at the same rate.

Short of seeing your dental professional to update or remake your cosmetic dental procedure, our whitening treatment cannot make them whiter than originally created.

Since our treatment is CUSTOMIZED – Your whitening treatment will be performed in such a manner that we will achieve a shade match of the restoration and the natural teeth producing BRIGHT, EVEN · ATTRACTIVE RESULTS!

What do you mean by “Customized” Teeth Whitening? Aren’t all whitening treatments about the same?

Unfortunately, the answer is Yes!

The vast majority of treatments will do the EXACT SAME THING each time, regardless of any variables that should be considered.

(Very grateful that my physician, auto mechanic, and hairdresser don’t do business that way!)

By “Customized Teeth Whitening”,  we mean that rarely do we perform an identical whitening treatment on our Whiten Up Today! clients.

(The exception being a “current patient” scheduling a routine touch-up.)

Every patient goes through our “Accessed Sensitivity Level” (A.S.L.).  We then quantify information gathered to determine the appropriate protocol:

  1. The intensity of our LightBridge™ Laser Technology  (Gentle · Normal · Intense Settings)
  2. Cycles and timing of the whitening treatments
  3. Whitening Gel determination. Selection of the correct formula is critical in order to achieve maximum whitening results with minimal/zero associated sensitivity.

Furthermore, since no 2 clients have identical “Smile Standards” (ie “One person’s TOO WHITE is another’s JUST RIGHT),  we utilize our 10 whitening variables unique to every client, in order to determine a sound recommendation as to the initial whitening treatments, scheduled routine whitening touch-ups, at-home teeth whitening routines and then finally, any special or unique whitening recommendations based on such variables as lifestyle, diet, habits, patient’s profession, oral care hygiene, age, etc.

Lastly, all information is kept on file for easy reference anytime a client ever has a question regarding the whitening maintenance of their teeth, and for future Teeth Whitening routine maintenance such as “In-Office Touch-ups”, use and effectiveness of specific “At-Home” treatments, etc.

Teeth Whitening should not be A ONE & DONE cosmetic treatment!

Over the course of time, perhaps several years, teeth will eventually succumb to life’s onslaught of coffee, tea, red wine and all those deliciously delightful foods that taste so good but make our teeth look so bad!

It’s not rocket science to attain & maintain a confident, Bright and White Smile – You just need to have the right people working on your behalf.