Professional whitening for perfect whiteness

Bleaching has been part of our range of services for several years. For professional teeth whitening, we use the tried-and-tested bleaching system from Philips – ZOOM.

Before bleaching, large areas of caries in the mouth must be removed. With ‘in-office whitening’, a gel containing hydrogen peroxide is first applied to the teeth and left for a few minutes with additional exposure to light to activate the effect of the whitening gel.

The bleaching gel penetrates the tooth and colours the dark deposits. After approximately one hour or 3-4 sessions, lasting 8 minutes each, you will have achieved the maximum result for one session. This process can be repeated as required and depending on the desired degree of whitening.

You can also wear teeth whitening trays at home for a week (‘home bleaching’) to prolong the life of your whitened teeth.

In my previous experience in microscope dentistry, I could not detect any changes to the tooth substance as a result of bleaching. During the professional treatment, the gums are carefully protected from contact with the bleaching agent. This means that tooth whitening poses no risk to the healthy oral cavity. Immediately after the bleaching treatment, the teeth may be more sensitive for up to 24 hours. If this occurs, a ‘desensitising gel’ can be applied to manage the pain more effectively, typically reducing its duration to around 24 hours in 50% of patients.

Whitening achieves a very good aesthetic effect. In many cases, tooth whitening avoids veneers or crowns, as white teeth already change the subjective appearance in a very positive way. As a result, you can enhance the appearance of your teeth quickly and with minimal effort. However, caution should be exercised with anterior fillings. These may need to be replaced with lighter-colored fillings after tooth whitening, particularly in cases of ‘white spots,’ which are light-colored stains on the teeth. These light-coloured stains can become even lighter as a result of bleaching and may then have to be evened out with resin fillings.

All teeth are individual and are therefore bleached to different degrees. We cannot know in advance whether you belong to the group of patients whose teeth will be strongly or only slightly whitened. However, even for patients whose tooth colour is less responsive to bleaching, a noticeable whitening effect is typically evident after just 2-3 sessions.

It is not possible to predict how long the whitening result will last and when it will need to be repeated, as this also varies from patient to patient. However, the whitening result lasts 2 to 3 years on average. This can be followed by either an ‘in-office treatment’ or ‘home bleaching’.

Good dental hygiene at home and regular professional dental cleaning at the dentist are important to prevent or remove deposits.