I have been doing some teeth whitening with a kit my dentist gave me but the trays hurt my jaw. I saw an advertisement for the Tanda Pearl Teeth Whitening System. They said with their special light that you only have to do the whitening for 5 minutes per day. My dentist has me doing it for an hour. I think only needing 5 minutes would really help my jaw pain. Do you know if this is legitimate?

Sally

Dear Sally,

I am glad you wrote. I think I can help you. First, you should know that the whitening ingredient they use is legitimate. That will whiten your teeth. That being said, their light doesn’t seem like it is anything special and they shroud it in mystery which makes me distrust their claims about it. If it did have anything better than the Zoom light, they’d make a fortune marketing it to dentists. They do not, which makes me think it is more psychological than utilitarian.

There is something important to bear in mind, especially if you are having jaw pain. They do not use two separate trays, the way your dentist likely did. You should have something similar to what is pictured above. With the Tanda Pearl System, there is one tray that you have to hold onto with your teeth in order to keep it in. I believe this is going to cause you more pain than what you are experiencing now.

Some other considerations are the fact that the tray will not be custom fit to your bite. This means that the gel will leak out making the strength less effective. It also means your saliva will mix with the gel in the tray further weakening its effectiveness. Finally, the gel can also irritate your gums as it leaks out. You won’t want that either.

My suggestion for you is to first have your dentist look at your trays to make sure they were properly fit to your bite. If the trays are fine then you can simply whiten for a shorter amount of time. You don’t have to wear them for an hour. You can do a half hour or even fifteen minutes. Try lessening the time. I think that would be more comfortable for you than what this kit offers.

This blog is brought to you by Gilbert Dentist Dr. Matt Roper.