My Brite Smile (Britesmile Tooth Whitening)

Member Name: memphisto_chick

Product:	Britesmile Tooth Whitening
Date:	15/02/08 (855 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Speed, Decent Results

Disadvantages: Price, Availability

Working as a dental nurse, in May 2005 I indulged myself in having the Brite Smile treatment on my teeth.

Brite Smile is tooth whitening system, somethig which has become more and more popular in Dentistry and comestically too. You can get your teeth whitened in many ways, through bleaching trays and gel you use at home over night, going to a hairdressers, independent shop that do their own bleaching and of course, Brite Smile.

Brite Smile is a type of tooth whitening that can be performed in a dental surgery in the space of a few hours, so you can literally walk in with teeth one shade and walk out with a brighter, whiter smile. Brite Smile do advertise this as being able to be completed in one hour, in my personal and professional experience it normally takes 1 and a half to two hours including preparation time and after-care advice.

A BRIEF OVERVIEW
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The Brite Smile whitening process consists of a gentle whitening gel activated by a a special bluey/lilac light, to make the teeth whiter. The dental surgeon does all of the whitening for you, you just sit back and relax.

The light used in Brite Smile is not UV, heat or laser-activated. Despite this, you will be asked you wear prospective coloured glasses to protect your eyes.

THE NITTY GRITTY
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When you actually go for your treatment, you dentist will ask you to brush your teeth first with a toothbrush and toothpaste provided as part of the whitening process, so you don't need to bring your own. After brushing your teeth, you are asked to rinse out with clear water. This is just so that you don't have any residue left on your teeth.

After brushing, the dentist will normally ask you to jump into the chair. Upon lying down, the road to a whiter smile has begun.
First of all, the dentist or the nurse will pop a device called a retractor into your mouth that keeps the lips open and away from the teeth, this may feel uncomfortable at first and you may finish the process with a tired feeling in your cheeks and lips. If you are a fan of Vaseline, take it with you to pop on your lips. After this is in, a photograph will be taken of your teeth, this is to show you how much lighter your teeth are at the end of the process.

The dentist normally will tell you what shade of teeth you have current and may make an estimation of how much lighter your teeth can go. I was a shade A3, which is about average after a few years of coffee staining and drinking red wine, I hoped that I would be at least one shade lighter after the treatment.

After all the relevant photographs and notes are made, the dentist will pop 2 pieces of thick, rope like materials between the bottom of your gums and the adjoining tissues to the base of the lips, this is to protect your tissues from any contact with the gel, again you may feel slightly uncomfortable with this, before you remove this, your dentist or the nurse will normally wet it so that it doesn't hurt because it's dried the secretions out.

A white material is placed around the base of the teeth and gums. This white material goes hard and it designed to protect your gums from the whitening gel, which can irritate the gums if contact is made with the gel. The process of applying the protective gel is fine, painless and isn't uncomfortable in my experience, however some people may find that once the dentist gets to the back teeth, you may feel the need to gag (I did) because it can feel as though you have a mouthful of fingers, ropes and plastic but the best advice both personally and professionally I can give is to close your eyes, breathe slowly through the nose and let the dentist go to work.

So now, all your isolation materials are in place, whitening can almost start. It's time for the whitening gel to be applied to the teeth. The gel does feel cold and it can be tingly on the teeth and if it does inadvertently come into contact with your soft tissues it can sting. A tiny bit went on my lip and it did tingle but I wiped it off quickly and after a few minutes the sensation went. The dentist will try to work right to the back teeth on both the top and bottom, I will mention though through my professional experience, that because of the size of some people's mouths, it isn't always possible to get to the very back teeth.

This gel is left on for 20 minutes initially and you are put back in the chair with your protective goggles on. You are free to listen to the radio, doze or bring a iPod/mp3 player to listen to. The blue light is shone at your teeth during this 20 minute period so you must not take the goggles off. Within this 20 minute window, you may find that your face feels really stretched and tired. As bad as this feels, it does pass, I felt sick because of the plastic lip retractors but after breathing deeply it did pass. The important thing to remember is that it won't take long, nothing is going to harm you and it will be worth carrying on for.

20 minutes later, your dentist and nurse remove the initial does of gel from your teeth. Mine was removed using an air puffer and suction but different dentists have different methods, I have assisted with removing the gel with cotton buds and gauze in my career. After a brief respite, more gel is applied and another 20 minute stint with the light is required. After this 2nd leg of the whitening process, the 2nd lot of gel is again removed from the teeth and another application is applied, again for another 20 minutes.

The process actually become OK after the first 20 minutes, you know that it is only 20 minutes again before something else happens, that makes it easier in my experience than sitting there for a full 60 minutes, unfortunately, it's not possible to remove the retractors until the end of the process, so no whipping them out before!

So, the 3rd application is nearing the end and yet again you can expect the gel to be removed, you may find as I did, on the 3rd removal, that the dentist spends a lot longer removing the gel than they did before, this is just to make doubly sure that no gel makes contact with your soft tissues causing any type of irritation. The isolation gel which has been sitting over the gums is removed, again, not painful or uncomfortable and the string pieces are wet so you can have the removed without taking half your lip away!

So, the next step is to re-brush your teeth, again you need to use the toothbrush and another sachet of toothpaste to do this and it is important to really take your time and don't rush, you may notice that your teeth feel sensitive, this is normal. I did feel sensitive but only when I had finished brushing and the air struck my wet teeth, it wasn't any worse than normal sensitivity though.

So, the treatment itself is complete. The dentist needs to take your 'after' picture, so you need to pop the plastic retractors in briefly again for a photograph.


THE END RESULT
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Depending on how dark your teeth were before, you should notice a huge difference. I didn't changes too many shades because my teeth were of average colour before and then went to a shade A1, which is one of the whitest shades you can go to, it is the Hollywood smile colour. I have seen really dark teeth revert to an average colour, which is quite remarkable.

AFTERCARE
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Of course, when it comes to anything expense, you have too look after it, so, for 24 hours after I was told not to drink:Coffee, Tea, Fizzy Drinks, Red Wine or anything that would stain the teeth. The same was with food, no curries, tomato sauces, in fact I was told if I could drink milk or water and white bread cheese sandwiches, for 24 hours that would be the best way to safe guard my new smile. This is because bleaching makes the teeth porous and any strongly coloured drinks/foods will stain your teeth and it is almost impossible to remove.

You will also be advised to use the Brite Smile toothpaste and mouthwash and you should get a kit before you leave with samples in. It is worth using as you will prolong the effect of the whitening. It also hydrates the teeth again in the days following your treatment.

Expect to have sensitive teeth after too, I found on day 2 or 3 they seemed to have a sensitivity flare up where my teeth actually ached but after that day, I had no problems.

COST
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I have to admit this isn't a cheap procedure, I worked in a practice where the treatment was £399 but I paid £100 as a staff member & I would say that it is probably not worth £399 but it is worth £100, however, it is unlikely you will ever be able to get this for that price! People generally choose Brite Smile over other methods because it suits their lifestyle, they don't have to put trays in overnight, they don't have to wait 10-14 days for the full effect.


OVERALL
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I may be vain for trying Brite Smile but curiosity did get the better of me and I feel it has been worth it for me, however it is not for everyone and if you have crowns, white fillings at the front, they will not change colour and you could end up having those replaced too, which only adds to the expense of the treatment.
In my opinion, it is NOT worth the £399 or even up to £600 that some practices charge for the treatment and you cannot control the shade your teeth go so you could be disappointed that they have either not gone as light as you would like or that they have gone too white for your liking.

Personally and professionally I do like the speed of Brite Smile and I do like the fact I don't have to pop trays in every night as I used to before but I am still dubious about recommending the procedure because of the expense of the procedure.
If you are considering whitening your teeth, do discuss the options open to you with your dentist, research on the internet and of course, hit research and review sites for other people's experiences, only if you have the money an you really don't want to wait for the effect to be noticeable would I say this is the procedure for you, there are cheaper methods that take longer that are available.

You should also be aware that the expense of the Brite Smile extends to having yearly top ups of the procedure that normally cost around £150 a go plus the after-care toothpaste, moutwash and touch up sticks, which last about a month and cost from £15 upwards, so ensure you budget for those too.

Three years on, I still have a good effect but Brite Smile has fallen out of love with a lot of dental surgeons lately, maily due to the want of the parent company wanting to increase the price of the process and with dentistry becoming an increasingly competitive market, many dentists are looking at whitening systems such as Zoom rather than Brite Smile. I have difficulty obtaining the aftercare solutions and pens, even as a dental pratice worker, this also accounts for the love loss towards Brite Smile. Generally we have to wait 3-4 weeks on back order for a sample aftercare pack and I have just waited 9 weeks for my touch up pen to come from the USA.

Incidentially, in some dental circles Brite Smile was slated due to the level of discomfort some patients experienced and although it was the original tooth whitening system, it's now not considered the best.

Personally, I am not going to have Brite Smile again but I would still recommed tooth whitening as a whole.


Overall ratings:
Effect: 8/10
Discomfort: 7/10
Price : 0/10


Thanks for reading xx

Summary: The original "in chair" whitening system, falling out of favour these days.