Pola night teeth whitening

[Andrew J]

Hi

I have been given polanight teeth whitening gel and home whitening trays by my dentist to whiten my teeth and I usually wear the trays all night and over the last couple of days, I have noticed that my teeth have become very sensitive during the day.

I cant drink cold water or drinks anymore as I get these shooting pains that are at times very severe. I would like to carry on with my whitening but I am worried that my teeth will become even more sensitive and really hurt when I eat and drink.

Could you advise me, on what I should do to make my teeth less sensitive and painful. Do I need to change my whitening gel? Do I need new whitening trays? please help.

[Dr Ehsan J. Esfahani]

Hello Andrew,

Thank you for your post.

Sensitivity with home whitening is very common and needs to be managed. Firstly you should reduce the wear time of the whitening trays to 2 hours each night. If your teeth are not sensitive the next day you can increase the wear time to 4 and 6 hours and finally wear the home whitening trays overnight.

If your teeth are still sensitive with 2 hours wear, the following day desensitising gel should be applied in the trays and worn for 30mins. This will desensitise and reduce the sensitivity. If following this you still experience too much sensitivity I suggest you change the whitening gel. Pola night gel is not offered at Pearl and we recommend enlighten evolution whitening gel. This is because enlighten evolution does not make the teeth very sensitive and is effective.

Occasionally the whitening trays need to be checked for good fitting if sensitivity issues are not resolved.