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5 Tips For Dealing With Sensitivity After Teeth Whitening Treatments

Oct 07, 2020
5 Tips For Dealing With Sensitivity After Teeth Whitening Treatments
You probably love the look of your pearly whites after successful whitening treatments even though you probably loathe dentin hypersensitivity that’s also associated with these treatments...

You probably love the look of your pearly whites after successful whitening treatments even though you probably loathe dentin hypersensitivity that’s also associated with these treatments.

Foods and beverages that are too hot or too cold, with the addition of those sensitive teeth, can be too hard to bear.

On the plus side, this pain that’s also associated with certain sweet foods and during contact with your teeth (brushing your teeth) isn’t permanent and will most probably subside after around two days following your treatment.

First, to better understand how you can seek teeth whitening pain relief, you need to understand what causes the condition in the first place.

About Teeth Whitening Sensitivity

There are quite a few ways you can bring your smile back to its best form, ranging from different natural methods to over-the-counter special toothpaste, to specific treatments that should only be executed by dental professionals.

When it comes to the latter methods, the experienced sensitivity is most likely connected to a dental-grade bleaching agent that dentists use in order to get that long-lasting white smile. This agent tends to penetrate the enamel a bit and exposes a few nerve endings near the tooth’s surface.

What Can You Do to Ease Sensitivity From Whitening Treatments?

There are certain precautions you can take to tackle the problem of sensitive teeth. Here, we are going to bring you 5 of the best practices you can do to make the entire process easier.

1. Prepare for Your Treatment

A simple and effective way to get started with building up some resistance is by changing to a sensitive toothpaste or gel before you start the whitening treatment. Do this at least one week prior.

Even though this may not be enough to protect you entirely from temporary heightened sensitivity, at least it will somewhat help to ease your discomfort.

2. Monitor Your Treatments

If you are using a home whitening kit, you can fine-tune both treatment time and dosages and adjust it to how your teeth respond to it. In simpler terms, you can always stop when you feel the onset of sensitivity, and this way, you can minimize the discomfort while achieving some pretty satisfactory results at the same time.

For the best results, record the duration of your sessions and alter the treatments when you start to feel that your teeth are becoming sensitive. If you need more frequent but shorter sessions, take that route. If you can handle more at once then you can get over with it quicker, but chances are, you’ll have to deal with some discomfort afterward.

3.Be Careful With Home Kits

Stay away from using these kits as you can miss serious warning signs that will ultimately lead to sensitivity and pain. Also, don’t go overboard with the amount of gel you use for each of your teeth. More gel doesn’t necessarily mean better results but it can get into more sensitive parts of your

4.Follow Your Dentist’s Orders

They are dental professionals for a reason. To ease your pain following your treatment(s), follow their advice and these tactics:

  • 1. Use a prescribed toothpaste or gel specifically designed to fight sensitivity. Your symptoms will most probably subside after 48 hours, after that, you can get back to using your regular toothpaste.
  • 2. Don’t be aggressive when brushing your teeth. Make sure to use a brush with soft bristles and use lukewarm water instead of ice-cold for better damage control. Also, try leaving the toothpaste in your mouth after brushing for a few minutes to give it some extra time to work before you start to rinse your teeth.
  • 3. If you choose to use home whitening kits, always make sure that you have some toothpaste for sensitive teeth that you can apply to your teeth after whitening for at least 20 minutes. This can significantly improve the outcome and reduce sensitivity.
  • 4. Avoid consuming foods and drinks that are too cold or too hot following your treatment. Coffee and tea, in particular, can even stain your shining whites.
  • Use a straw as you can avoid drinks coming into contact with your teeth.

There’s Always Pain Medication

5. There’s Always Pain Medication

Unfortunately, there are cases when the discomfort lasts longer than the expected two days following the treatment. In these cases, it’s best to ask your dentist about proper and safe pain relief medication. Your dentist will most likely prescribe anti-inflammatory painkillers or other courses of pain relief to help fight the problem until it subsides on its own.

Home Whitening Kits?

Generally, we wouldn’t recommend using them as you will be always in better and safer hands when you entrust these tasks to a professional. However, there are some considerable options on the market that can bring satisfactory results for some users. If you opt for them, always make sure to follow the guidelines highlighted on the product and also, to track the results and the changes for yourself. As mentioned before, monitor your progress and tailor your sessions to your own tempo.

Learn More About Expert Options

As you can see, there are a couple of things you can do to combat the issue of sensitive teeth following your (and even prior to your) treatments with a few simple steps.

The truth is, their effectiveness will be mostly different for each patient as every individual has a different tolerance to pain. Also, the amount of damage the bleaching agent made to the enamel will also certainly play a role, however, in the case of professional dental services, this will be minimal.

When it comes to teeth whitening Miami has some pretty great options thanks to all the highly professional dental experts in the area. All in all, we are talking about a simple, non-invasive treatment that will produce great results with patients seeing noticeable improvements by the end of their treatments. To learn more about our services, feel free to reach out to us.