Whitening Your Teeth	And Improving Your Smile...
Bleaching - what a "hot" topic!  Where do we begin?  There is so much out there in the media regarding bleaching with lights, bleaching with lasers, whitening with toothpaste, bleaching sold on the television shopping networks - it goes on and on.  But here's the deal.  This patient was a longtime smoker who decided to quit and wanted to lighten his teeth after years of nicotine and coffee. We have been bleaching our client's teeth for years with a gentle, gradual method,  using a15%  to 20% specialized peroxide solution for several hours per day at home, usually overnight.	Now, this patient took a little longer to bleach  (about 5 weeks in his case)  as his teeth were so yellow after all those years.  But wow - what a difference - and we had not finished the lower yet when we took this photo.  And  the whole case cost about one-third as much as it would at one of these one-hour bleaching salons.  By the way, all the lights and lasers that you hear about do nothing for bleaching.  These "quickie" methods actually work in large part by dehydrating teeth (if something is wet and then you dry it, doesn't it appear lighter in color when it is dry?)  Best of all, we congratulate this patient - no more smoking!
Here is a young professional man who had suffered an athletic injury to his front tooth as a teenager.  A "cap", otherwise known as a crown, was placed on the broken tooth for him well over 20 years ago.  The old cap had functioned pretty well for him, but it sure left a lot to be desired esthetically, especially now that he was often in the public eye.  Understandabaly, he was reluctant to undergo more dental treatment on this front tooth, but finally concluded that something had to be done.	And here is the untouched photograph of his new, completed porcelain-fused-to-gold crown.  He has also completed a very successful three week course of bleaching on both top and bottom teeth.  Isn't there a spectacular difference in his appearance?  Can you even tell that his front tooth was ever injured?  Once again, this is  the real world dentistry of Dr. Josephsen, and start to finish, this case was completed in three visits over one month's time.