Like with many other dental or medical treatments, people have wondered if teeth whitening during pregnancy and breastfeeding is safe.

Recent articles suggest that there is a certain monomer responsible for quality bonds, but the truth is that the strength of a bond lies squarely in the balance of the chemistry of the product, rather than just one “magical ingredient.” Neil Jessop, Director of Research and Development for Ultradent Products, Inc. says, “It isn’t one specific monomer that promotes such high-level bond strengths, but the balance of chemistry and a synergy of components working together that affords stability, repeatability, and reliable, long-term bonds.”

The average mouth opening distance of an adult male patient is 30mm1. This limited range, coupled with the posterior placement of many restorations, makes it nearly impossible to position a traditional curing light with an oversized head or angled light guide. This typically forces the operator to tilt their light to a 45-60 degree angle, making direct irradiation of light on the restoration in posterior teeth nearly impossible.

While we all do our best to maintain good dental hygiene, a long dental procedure is nearly inevitable. The cheek retractors needed for lengthy chair time—and the resulting anxiety, muscle fatigue, and pinching—are just not up to the task. There are a lot of patients who can finally opt for a better experience.

Never a “me too” brand, Opalescence has, from the beginning, sought out new, different, and better ways to make whitening faster, more effective, more convenient, and more comfortable for the patient. Since its introduction of Opalescence® PF—the first sticky, viscous whitening gel available on the market (1990)—dentists and patients alike have come to expect exciting innovation with each new Opalescence product launch over the past 25 years. However, no one could have predicted the exciting impact the brand would make when in 2013, it released perhaps its most revolutionary product yet, Opalescence Go®.

All dental curing lights can cause ocular damage from the light they emit.1-3 The most damaging wavelength for the retina is blue light, near 440 nm, which is within the spectral emission from dental curing lights.4,5 Blue light is transmitted through the ocular media and absorbed by the retina. Dental professionals must be aware of and use proper protection from this blue light hazard6-8 because they have a duty to protect both the patient and employees from harm.

“Walking bleach,” or endodontic whitening, provides a whitening solution for the many patients with one or more non-vital teeth. Non-vital teeth often appear darker than the rest of a patient’s smile due to internal bleeding caused by trauma, the presence of necrotic debris, or pigmentation as a result of previously used endodontic treatment materials. Thus, unlike most whitening cases where discoloration is caused by external staining to vital teeth (usually due to smoking, eating, and/or drinking habits,) as the pre-fix “endo” suggests, endodontic whitening, or walking bleach, is used when discoloration comes from the inside out.

Moisture. It’s the constant battle of dentists everywhere as they fight, on a daily basis, to perform quality, precise work that offers longevity to the patient. This can only be done in the presence of zero to very little moisture, thus, clinicians are constantly looking for effective ways to block and/or slow its flow while they work. One of the “old reliables” dentists turn to time after time remains the rubber dam—a standard, yet polarizing tool that been in most dentist’s bag of tools since its advent by Sanford C. Barnum in 1964.

Compliance can be one of the biggest obstacles when it comes to getting your patients to complete whitening treatments. Some patients simply stopped bleaching because they weren't seeing the results they wanted to see. Whitening is a gradual process, so it is often difficult for patients to notice the changing hue of their teeth, especially when they whiten both arches simultaneously.