Whether you’re strolling the Upper East Side or slapping your sandals on the Jersey Shore boardwalk, summer is prime time to strut your stuff. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter if you’ve copped your togs straight from the runway — if your smile is dingy, you may as well hang out inside for the season.
Enter professional teeth whitening.
At Union Square Dental in New York City, our dentists Kateryna Grytsenko, DDS, and Yuliya Kanatova, DDS, know how important a bright-white smile is, especially when the rest of you is dog days-ready. Here’s a closer look at how we can give you a smile to match your summer style.
Sadly, even the most diligent oral hygiene routine can’t prevent your smile from losing its shimmer. Everything from what you eat and drink to bad habits and medications turns the dazzle down on your grin.
When that happens, you need to call in the professionals. We begin by evaluating the current shade of your teeth and getting to the bottom of what’s made them turn color. We adjust the strength of your treatment based on what caused the stains.
Then, we prepare your teeth by cleaning and polishing them. We isolate your teeth with gauze and retractors to keep your teeth dry and protect your tongue, gums, and cheek. In some cases, we also place a barrier to avoid gum damage.
The next step is to coat your teeth with the whitening solution. We treat the surface of your teeth with hydrogen peroxide, which penetrates the enamel (the white outer layer of your teeth) to break up the stain-causing pigments lurking below.
We use a special curing light to activate the bleaching agents and leave it to work its magic for 30-60 minutes.
This process makes way for more of your natural tooth color to shine through, making your teeth look whiter and brighter. Once we’ve reached the optimum shade, you rinse your teeth, and we apply a fluoride solution to relieve sensitivity.
Depending on your treatment goals, you may want to come back for a few more sessions until you get the exact shade you want.
Sure, you can try. You can pick up plenty of DIY kits at the drugstore, but trust us when we say you won’t get the results you’re after, and it’ll take a lot longer, too. The strips you can buy don’t pack the same punch as our in-office treatments because the bleaching gel doesn’t contain the same concentration of hydrogen peroxide.
Companies weaken the strips because if you apply super-concentrated hydrogen peroxide incorrectly, you could damage your teeth and gums.
So, the results you get from DIY kits are, by nature, lackluster and uneven.
You’ve spent time and money getting your smile to look its best — you don't want to go backward.
We recommend avoiding pigment-rich foods and drinks for at least the first day to get the most out of your professional teeth whitening treatments. This allows the treatment to take effect before you return to your regular routine.
From then on, you can eat and drink as you please, but remember that those dark, colorful treats can reverse your teeth-whitening results over time, so do your best to limit them.
You should also consider taking up a consistent oral hygiene routine if you haven’t already and take steps to quit using tobacco products.
Are you ready to get your smile up to summertime speed? Call our friendly staff at 212-675-7877 to schedule an appointment today.
