YouTube video (June 26, 2014) by Dr. Sanda Moldovan explaining teeth bleaching: compares in-office and at-home methods, describes procedure and protections (gum barriers), lists post-bleaching care (avoid colored foods for 2–3 days to allow remineralization), gives timing recommendations for at-home trays (15–20 minutes, do not wear overnight), and states contraindications (do not bleach under age 16; avoid bleaching during pregnancy).
Questions this video answers
About an hour and a half (with bleaching material changed periodically).
For the first 2–3 days after bleaching.
About 15–20 minutes.
No — do not wear overnight; it can damage teeth and burn gums.
Under 16 — bleaching is not recommended for those under 16.
Chapters
Hi, everyone, I'm Dr. Sandha. I get so many questions from you regarding bleaching. Is bleaching going to burn my gums? Is it going to damage my teeth? So let's talk a little bit about it. There's so many bleaching products out there, and let's face it, we all want to have a great smile, but we don't want to be in pain afterwards. And I gotta tell you, my first bleaching experience was not all that great. I had a bleaching in the office, and in the middle of the night I woke up and all my teeth were throbbing. Now, luckily, all that went away the next day, but for 24 hours I was really in a lot of pain and I had to take quite a bit of ibuprofen. So how can we avoid that? The quickest way to get bleaching is definitely in the dental office under the light. So that's gonna take about an hour and a half. But the most important thing with that is make sure that all the gums are covered. And a good assistant will do that for you in the dental office. And then you can have an hour and a half of bleaching material that's being changed every so often. And you could see that how it's done in this picture right here. So we're gonna actually cover the gums with a gel to protect them from the burn of the bleach, and then put the bleaching on the teeth. Now, the teeth do get demineralized, so when the bleaching agent actually sits on the teeth, the surface of the enamel is gonna get a little poor porous. So for the first two to three days after your bleaching, make sure you don't have anything that's colored. So no coffee, no red wine. Try to keep what we call a white diet. And eventually the saliva is going to remineralize your teeth and the initial sensitivity will go away. There's so many other products on the market. We have toothpaste with whitening. We have like Crest White strips. A lot of my patients actually love Crest White strips. Less invasive and you can get results probably in a week to two weeks. We can also make you trays to take at home, so you actually put the bleaching material in it. We're going to give you a tube like this one, and you put a small amount just on the outer surface of the tray. And then you wear that for about 15 to 20 minutes. The bleaching materials today are excellent, so you only really need 15 to 20 minutes. Yes, you can wear it on your teeth way too long so do not wear it overnight. That can actually damage your teeth and burn your gums. So somebody that has very thin gums in recession if actually the gel overflows over the tray and it's gonna hit the areas of your gum you can get even permanent recession. So definitely be very, very careful. Use a small amount of bleach inside your tray. Now how young can you bleach if you're under 16? Definitely we do not recommend bleaching because the teeth have just formed so they are more sensitive and the nerve is actually a little bit larger than an adult and they could have even more sensitivity than adults. Also if you're pregnant we also do not recommend bleaching. I would definitely wait until you have after you have the baby. Do you have any questions about bleaching? You could tweet me rsanda or send me a message on my website DrSandaMoldovan.com until next time.
