A beautiful white smile can look gorgeous, and Bromley Dental Practice offers patients Zoom whitening, one of the best-known and most respected whitening systems on the market. You can choose to have your teeth whitened in one of two ways.

Our principal dentist, Dr Zaki Bashir, can either whiten your teeth chair side, or you can choose to whiten at home using custom-made bleaching trays. Combining both methods will give the brightest results. Whitening in our dental practice is the quickest method, but some people prefer to carry out the process more slowly and in the comfort of their own home. But what happens once you’ve whitened your teeth, and how long can you expect the results to reasonably last?

This is a tricky question to answer, as the results depend on your lifestyle habits, for example if you like to drink wine, tea or coffee, or if you’re a smoker then the effects will not last quite so long. Our cosmetic dentist in Bromley will advise you how often you’ll need to touch up the results, based on your lifestyle habits. This is very easy to do at home, using our custom-made whitening trays.

Another common question is whether or not tooth whitening causes any side effects. Zoom whitening contains special ingredients to help minimise any tooth sensitivity, and the bleaching gels are designed to help protect tooth enamel. If you do feel any slight sensitivity and then it should be minimal and purely temporary. If you already have particularly sensitive teeth then you may wish to use our custom-made bleaching trays at home as these use a lower strength whitening gel over a longer period of time.

Lots of people already have veneers and crowns, and will want to know whether or not bleaching will lift the colour of these porcelain restorations. The truth is it cannot change them, as the bleaching gel will only work on natural teeth. If you do want to whiten your teeth then you might need to be prepared to replace any crown and bridge work or dental veneers. If your teeth have become stained since having these restorations then it might be possible to carefully whiten your teeth to match reasonably well.

Some teeth will whiten more easily than others, as for example if you have teeth that have been stained by tetracycline then these may prove difficult to whiten. The results can vary and it can be difficult to predict the effects. Quite a few people have teeth that have signs of fluorosis which are white spots that are formed due to being exposed to excess fluoride as children. In this case bleaching can help make the white spots less visible by lifting the background shade, but once again, results can vary.

In general, teeth whitening in Bromley is very safe for anyone with a healthy mouth, and the results can look terrific. Studies have shown having a brighter smile can significantly boost self-esteem, and can make others perceive us as being younger than we really are; that’s a huge bonus for quite a few of us.