Getting out teeth whitened properly is something we’ve ALWAYS wanted to do, but just haven’t really had time to. On our most recent trip down to South Australia, we were invited into Adelaide Dental Spa to get our teeth whitened. Here’s everything you need to know about getting your teeth whitened, and how our first experience went.
Who are Adelaide Dental Spa?
Adelaide Dental Spa has a mission to do dentistry differently, and that’s obvious from the moment you walk through the door. It definitely looks and smells more like a nice day spa rather than a dentist, with a beautiful white aesthetic in every room, contemporary décor and chic furniture. Diffusers can be found in every room as well, hiding the usual dentist-bleach smell and instead replacing it with pretty scented oils.
You’re offered a drink when you first arrive, and we’d suggest you take them up on that offer – you’ll be in the chair for a little while, and straight after you might have a little sensitivity, so you might not want to drink anything. Sparkling and still water are on offer, as well as tea and coffee for those not getting whitening done.
Preparing your teeth for whitening
When you go into the room, the dentist will give you a hygiene appointment to ensure everything is looking sparkling clean and give you the best whitening result possible. Next, it’s time to pair your teeth up with a shade on the tooth colour scale. They’ll show you where your teeth are at now, as well as the shade you can expect to go to.
Now it’s time to get comfy! Adelaide Dental Spa has some super fancy leather chairs that are insanely comfortable, as well as large TVs on the ceiling with Netflix, which were honestly a godsend. All up the process takes about 90 minutes, and you do have a device in your mouth that holds it wide open for the whole time. Being able to pick and watch a movie while all this was happening made the experience fly by, and really helped settle any nerves we had.
The whitening process
Once your teeth are all prepped and ready to go, it’s time to apply a resin to your gums. This ensures the bleach is kept off them, as bleach on your gums is a bad idea. As opposed to the tooth, bleach will burn your gums quite quickly, leaving you with ulcers in your mouth.
Next it’s time for the bleach! We opted for three rounds of bleaching, but depending on the shade of your teeth and sensitivity, you can go more or less. The bleach is applied for eight minutes, then removed and applied again for your recommended amount of times.
This was the bit we were a little nervous about, but it was pretty much pain-free. Adelaide Dental Spa was extremely quick but accurate with the bleach application, meaning there wasn’t too much waiting between rounds. We both only had a couple of tiny waves of sensitivity in the last round, however we could imagine this might get a little worse if you leave the bleach on for longer.
That’s it! Once the bleach is removed for the final time the resin is also taken off, and you get to rinse out your mouth and see your new, shiny white teeth for the first time.
The teeth whitening result
We both moved up a few shades in whiteness, which we were so happy with. In terms of aftercare, we were told to use Sensodyne to brush with, and if we had any pangs of sensitivity we could rub a little bit of Sensodyne on our teeth to help with that too.
For the next 24-48 hours, there are a couple of things you should avoid eating or drinking. The main ones are coffee, red wine and red meat, but it’s really anything coloured. Adelaide Dental Spa recommends only eating white/clear things to avoid staining your teeth, with a rule of thumb being if you would drop it on a white top and it would stain, don’t eat it.
Adelaide Dental Spa is currently running a promotion for 50% off their whitening services to celebrate their launch, which is an incredible saving. If you’ve been thinking about getting your teeth whitened, we couldn’t recommend visiting Adelaide Dental Spa more. The entire procedure was so smooth and painless, and the spa-like atmosphere and TVs were incredibly relaxing. You can visit their website for more info here.
