At Alexandria Dental Health & Smile Studio, we provide both take-home and in-office options for whitening your teeth. Here, Dr. Mazhari discusses how to get and maintain a perfect white smile.

I’ve found that the best way to lighten your teeth and maintain that brightness is with a combination of methods. We begin by providing an in-office bleaching procedure, which is two 20-minute sessions of bleaching gel in one appointment.

Here’s how it works: we put a very strong gel on the teeth, taking care to protect sensitive gum tissue from the solution, and then I supervise the gel as the teeth lighten.

After 20 minutes, the gel is removed and reapplied to achieve the perfect shade of white for your teeth. Extrinsic stains, which are caused by daily exposure of our teeth to foods and drinks, come out relatively easily with a professional bleaching at our office.

However, the best way to maintain your beautiful white teeth is to continue with the whitening process at home with custom trays that we provide.

These trays allow a mild bleaching solution to sit on your teeth for a longer period of time, lightening the color. I recommend to my patients to bleach or whiten their teeth at home with trays and bleaching gels for 10-20 minutes per day. This provides less sensitivity,  and therefore continued application of the bleaching gel will progressively lighten the shade of the teeth.

Once you get to the shade you desire, you can stop the daily whitening and only do it a couple days a week or so to maintain it.

The home care combined with the in-office whitening is when you really get an incredible result. There are stronger gels available for patients to use, but in my opinion, these gels can make teeth too sensitive. Milder gels have been proven to work every time!

Sometimes patients just want the take-home option and start there to lighten their teeth. Other patients are happy to do the in-office bleaching once a year, they don’t want to keep up with the at-home care, which can help their teeth remain whiter than they normally would without the bleaching.

But if you want to have consistently bright teeth—remember, teeth will stain over time—you should consistently bleach your teeth with the take-home trays and get a professional teeth whitening as needed, typically once a year.

Have you been interested in whitening your teeth but don’t know the best place to start? Come in and see us at Alexandria Dental Health & Smile Studio for an appointment. We can help you get the gorgeous white smile you’ve been wanting with the right care!