Professional teeth whitening: what to expect

Whitening is one of the most requested cosmetic treatments in dentistry, and one of the most oversold. This page is about deciding whether it is right for you — and what a realistic result looks like.

If you want the comparison of methods, see professional versus at-home whitening. If you want to understand staining, see tackling tough stains.

Being straight about what whitening does

Whitening changes the colour of your enamel. That is the whole of it.

It is a cosmetic treatment. It does not clean your teeth, treat decay, treat gum disease or improve your oral health in any way. Many people feel more confident about their smile afterwards, and that is a perfectly legitimate reason to have it done — but we are not going to dress it up as a health benefit, and you should be wary of anyone who does.

Start with a clean

Before whitening anything, have a professional clean.

A scale and clean removes surface stain and calculus, and a good number of people find the shade afterwards is close to what they were hoping for. It is far cheaper than whitening, and it is the only way to see what colour your teeth actually are underneath.

If you still want to go further after that, you will at least be making the decision with accurate information.

Whether it will work for you

This depends on why your teeth are the colour they are, which is why an examination comes first.

Responds well — general yellowing with age, and staining from tea, coffee, red wine, curry or tobacco sitting on the enamel surface.

Responds less predictably — greyish teeth, discolouration from trauma, a tooth that has had root canal treatment, and staining from tetracycline taken while the teeth were forming. Tetracycline staining in particular often responds poorly, sometimes needing months, sometimes not lifting satisfactorily at all. Where that is the case, veneers or crowns are the realistic options and we would tell you so rather than take your money for a treatment unlikely to work.

Will not change at all — crowns, veneers, bridges and existing white fillings. They stay exactly the shade they were made.

That last point catches people out. If you have a white filling on a front tooth and whiten the teeth around it, the filling will end up looking darker than its neighbours and may need replacing to match — an additional cost worth knowing about beforehand.

What a realistic result looks like

Several shades lighter, in a natural range. Not the uniform brilliant white you see in photographs, which is almost always veneers or editing rather than whitening.

Results vary between people, and no practitioner can promise a specific shade in advance. Teeth are not uniformly coloured either — the edges are often more translucent and lighten less than the body of the tooth.

Results are not permanent. Depending on your diet and habits, expect to top up periodically. Take-home trays are useful for that.

The photograph problem

Almost every whitening image you have seen has been through some combination of studio lighting, a lip retractor, saturation adjustment and retouching. Several of those change apparent tooth colour more than any gel does.

If you bring a reference photograph — and it is genuinely helpful to bring one — the useful conversation is about which aspects of it are achievable. Often the shade is; the shape, the alignment and the gum line in the picture are not, and those are doing more of the work than people realise.

A practical test: look at your teeth in daylight, not bathroom light, and against a neutral background rather than beside a white towel or a white shirt. Teeth look considerably darker next to true white.

What is involved

In-chair — your gums are isolated and protected, a stronger gel is applied by a practitioner, usually in a few passes within one appointment. Immediate change.

Custom take-home trays — trays moulded to your teeth from impressions, with gel prescribed for your case. Worn for a set period daily over one to two weeks. Gradual, controllable, reusable later.

Both — in-chair to start, trays to continue and maintain.

A realistic timeline

If there is an event, count backwards and finish at least a week before it.

What it costs, and how to think about that

Fees for whitening at Victorian Dental Group are on the teeth whitening page, and you will get a written quote before anything starts.

Three things worth factoring in that people usually do not:

• Health funds generally do not cover whitening, because it is cosmetic. Check your item numbers if you want to be sure
• Custom trays are the durable asset. The gel is consumable and inexpensive; the trays last years. That makes take-home better value over time than repeat in-chair appointments
• The cost of matching existing dental work, if you have white fillings, crowns or veneers on front teeth. This can exceed the cost of the whitening itself, and it is entirely avoidable by discussing it first

Side effects

Sensitivity is common — short sharp twinges to cold during treatment and for a day or two after. Usually temporary. Tell us if you get it; strength and wear time can often be adjusted rather than abandoning treatment.

Gum irritation where gel contacts the gums.

Uneven results, particularly where teeth differ in underlying colour.

Whitening is not recommended during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Untreated decay, gum disease, cracked teeth or exposed roots need dealing with first — bleaching over those can be genuinely painful.

When we would suggest not whitening

• The discolouration is unlikely to respond, and a different treatment would serve you better
• You have untreated decay or gum disease
• You have significant front-tooth dental work that would end up mismatched
• Your expectations are for a result whitening cannot deliver

We would rather say so at the consultation than after you have paid.

There is one more, and it is the least comfortable to write. If someone has whitened repeatedly, is dissatisfied each time, and is describing a change nobody else can see, more whitening is not the answer and we will say so. Occasionally the right conversation is about something other than teeth, and a GP is the better person to have it with.

What else could be making your smile look the way it does

Colour is one of several things people are reacting to when they say they do not like their smile. Worth naming the others, because whitening does nothing for any of them:

• Alignment — orthodontics, or in limited cases bonding
• Chips and uneven edges — composite bonding, often in one visit
• Small gaps — bonding, or orthodontics
• Gums showing when you smile — a separate assessment; sometimes a specialist referral
• Worn, shortened teeth from grinding — a splint first, then restoration
• Recession exposing darker roots — whitening does not lighten root surface
• Dry, cracked lips — not dental, and more visible in photographs than tooth shade

An examination is where this gets sorted out. Sometimes the answer is a clean and nothing else.

Afterwards

Avoid deeply coloured food and drink for the first 24 to 48 hours, when teeth are most absorbent. After that: rinse with water after coffee, tea or wine, use a straw for iced drinks, and keep up your cleaning and check-ups.

Keep your trays, in their case, somewhere you will find them. They are the difference between a cheap top-up and starting again.

Questions we are asked

How white will I actually get? Nobody honest answers that before looking at your teeth. Yellow-toned teeth generally respond better than grey.

Will it hurt? Sensitivity is common, brief and manageable. Tell us early rather than enduring it.

Is it safe? Peroxide whitening used properly is well established. The risks come from unregulated products, ill-fitting trays and untreated problems underneath.

How long will it last? Months to a couple of years, depending mostly on coffee, tea, red wine and smoking.

Can I do it more often to keep it whiter? No. Follow the instructions; overuse causes sensitivity without adding much.

Can teenagers have it? Generally not before 18, other than in specific cases under dental supervision.

Will it whiten my crowns? No. That is the single most important sentence on this page for anyone with front-tooth dental work.

Who provides this here

Victorian Dental Group is a general dental practice in Malvern East and holds no specialist registration. Whitening is provided by our dentists following an examination. If a different treatment would serve you better, or nothing at all would, we will say so — and we recommend a second opinion from another appropriately qualified practitioner if it would help you decide.

Read more about teeth whitening, check-up and hygiene or sensitivity after whitening.

Victorian Dental Group — 291 Wattletree Road, Malvern East VIC 3145 · (03) 9088 5808 · book online

General information only, not personal dental advice. Individual results vary; no specific outcome is guaranteed. See our disclaimer.