Opalescence Teeth Whitening Gel

If you have seen advertisements for teeth whitening products and/or services in the last few weeks, chances are that at least one of them was about the Opalescence teeth whitening system. This professional whitening products can be used either with or without a whitening light during the process. The light can be used to accelerate the chemical reaction involved in the actual teeth whitening, but this is considered to be optional.

Opalescence Teeth Whitening Gel

The Opalescence teeth whitening gel is based on the substance hydrogen peroxide. This is very aggressive stuff that will start to chemically react immediately when it gets in contact with water or other moist things, such as the inside of a person's mouth. This gel comes prepackaged with indivually packaged components. The consumer mixes the components when he is about to apply them to his/her teeth. The reason why it works this way, is because this mixture has a very limited lifespan. It only works for a few hours. A few hours is a very short time. The mixture itself doesn't have any shelf life to speak of.

Like I said, the Opalescence whitening gel is a very aggressive substance. It has an extremely high concentration of the active ingredient known as hydrogen peroxide. The concentration is around 38%. This is 10 times more the recommended concentration of 3% for home remedies such as baking soda teeth whitening. This gel has a pH value of 7, meaning it's just as acidic as distilled water (which is not very). But due to the high concentration of hydrogen peroxide, this gel could possible damage your teeth's enamel severely. The gel may never be left on your teeth for too long, as this would surely cause your enamel to break down beyond repair.

A whitening light may be used on the gel to accelerate the chemical reaction. The light that is used in this process is called a 'curing light'. It's a very standard issue piece of equipment that every dentist has in his office. He uses this light when he' s working with dental filling as well. The light can be used to target teeth individually in a person's mouth.

The Opalescence company advises the dentist not to shine the light on any one tooth for more than 30 seconds. The dentist will go from one tooth to the next and start over once he's targeted all your teeth. This means all your teeth get multiple 30 second light treatments. This is enough to get the whitening process going, while not causing you any significant discomfort from the light's heat.