By Dr. Todd Taylor.
As a practicing dentist, I’ve researched and tried many different whitening products throughout the years. I’ve tried the popular in-office 1-hour whitening that uses a powerful light source to help activate the bleaching solution. What I found was that most, if not all, the patients who tried it had extremely sensitive teeth afterwards. It seems the light put off a lot of heat that dissipated into the tooth, and since it was only an hour for the entire treatment, a much higher concentration of chemicals was needed. All this led to the extreme sensitivities.
I’ve also tried the bleach strips that are available on the market as well. The main problem with those is that the strips do not follow the natural curves of the gum tissue. This leads to wasted material and a higher risk of soft tissue damage from the chemicals being used. Next,
I tried the tubes of bleach that are applied in custom trays and worn for various lengths depending on sensitivity levels. These aren’t ideal ones because you have to make an appointment in the doctor's chair for impressions to make the trays, and two, the chemicals that are used aren’t consistent and vary from tube to tube. This results in more upfront cost for the dentist and patients with varying degrees of sensitivity.
And finally, we have all used whitening toothpaste at one time or another. The bleaching chemical in toothpastes just isn’t strong enough to see good results in the short term and even in the long term.
Luxissimo is a new whitening product that I really like and seems to have solved several different problems with existing teeth whitening systems. It has a brush (pen) applicator that allows for exact placement of the bleach solution, which reduces waste and soft tissue damage. It also reduces the need for an in-office appointment for custom bleaching trays. This product provides a special mouthpiece that fits around the teeth, and it has built-in light technology precisely calibrated to activate the bleach solution.
On top of that, there is a timer integrated in the mouthpiece that automatically starts once the lights are activated. This eliminates the need to set a timer and takes out any guessing as to how long the bleach has been in the mouth. And finally, this product uses the highest-grade chemicals that are available for manufacturing. Having these pure chemicals has produced virtually zero to very minimal tooth sensitivity and consistent results every time.
