November 2021 - Arnold Dental

I’ve been doing tray teeth whitening and it’s been making my jaw hurt. I have TMJ disorder so I think the trays are aggravating it. I saw this advertisement the other day for the Tanda Pearl Ionic Teeth Whitening System. This says it can whiten your teeth in just five minutes a day. That is appealing to me because I wouldn’t have to wear the trays as long. Do you know if this system really does work?

Isobel

Dear Isobel,

After looking this over, I will tell you that it uses the same type of teeth whitening you can get with some kits. There is nothing in this that makes the 5 minutes special. I know they tout the ionic light and we’ll go over that in just a moment. I want to first address how the trays for this will affect your jaw pain. The trays you have from your dentist should be custom made to fit your bite perfectly. If they are not, the first thing I would do is ask your dentist to re-do them to fit your bite properly.

The tray made by the Tanda Pearl system will not fit you this way. It is a DIY and is a single tray that you will have to keep in by biting down on it the whole time. That will aggravate your TMJ Disorder significantly more.

The kit does seem safe but it does not have anything that makes it work any better than what your dentist is providing for you. As for the ionic light, it honestly seems to be there just for psychological reasons.

If your dentist did provide custom trays for you and they’re comfortable, but still aggravating your TMJ, I would simply wear your trays for a shorter period of time each day. You did not mention how long you are currently wearing them, but let’s say that you are currently wearing them for one hour a day. Then, I would suggest that you wear them for 30 minutes instead. If that is too much, go to 15.

I hope this helps. Talk to your dentist about that tray he made you. He could probably make some adjustments to it.

This blog is brought to you by Lexington, KY Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Fred Arnold.

My husband is in need of dental implants. We went to see a dentist who said the option for us is all-on-four dental implants. It’s pretty pricey. I was wondering what cases would make it the only option? Should we seek a second opinion?

Katarina

Dear Katarina,

All-on-4 Dental Implants

I’m going to say right off the bat to get a second opinion. I am always leary of dentists who imply you only have one option. That is rarely the case. In fact, he is ethically bound to give you all of your options. I haven’t examined your husband, but I will tell you about some other possibilities that come to mind right away.

First, all-on-4 is designed to help people still get dental implants when they have bone loss by angling the implants a certain way. One of the problems with this method is that if one part of it fails, you cannot just replace that dental implant. The entire procedure has to be redone.

If your husband does have bone loss, another option is to have a bone grafting procedure done. Then, you can have implant overdentures, which may be the better option for him. If he doesn’t have any bone loss then both all-on-four and bone grafting are completely unnecessary and he can go straight to implant-supported dentures.

If cost is an issue there are other options as well such as snap-on dentures or mini implants. My point is, you are probably not limited by one procedure. There are lots of options here and I don’t like that he was not given any of them except one.

Look for an experienced implant dentist to get a second opinion. When you do that, make sure it is a blind second opinion. By that, I mean don’t tell him the recommendation your first dentist gave, nor the name of your first dentist. The dental world is a small world and they may be friends. If he asks, just tell him you’d like his unbiased opinion. He or she should not have a problem with that.

This blog is brought to you by Lexington, KY Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Fred Arnold.

TMJ and Teeth Whitening

Should My Husband Get All-on-Four Dental Implants?

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