Teeth Whitening in Pottsville, PA
A brighter smile without the guesswork. We use professional-strength whitening that’s checked by a dentist first, so you know it’s safe for your teeth and your fillings before you start.
A Simple Way to Brighten Your Smile
Teeth whitening in Pottsville PA is one of the most common requests we hear at Fellows & Smink Dental Associates, and for good reason. Coffee, tea, red wine, and years of wear leave stains that brushing alone won’t lift. Professional whitening uses a stronger gel than what you’ll find at the drugstore, and it’s applied after a dentist has actually looked at your teeth.
That last part matters more than people realize. Not every stain responds to whitening, and not every tooth should be whitened. A crown or a filling on a front tooth won’t change color with the gel. Sensitivity, gum recession, and untreated decay can all turn a whitening session into a painful one if nobody checks first.
Dr. Scott Fellows or one of our hygienists will sit down with you, look at what’s actually causing the discoloration, and tell you plainly whether whitening is the right call. If it is, we’ll walk you through the options. If something else is going on, we’ll say so.
How Professional Whitening Differs from Store-Bought Kits
The whitening strips and trays you can buy at the pharmacy use a low concentration of peroxide. They work, slowly, on surface stains for some people. For others they do very little, and for a few they cause sensitivity because the trays don’t fit and the gel leaks onto the gums.
Professional whitening uses a higher concentration, applied in custom-fitted trays we make from impressions of your own teeth. The trays hold the gel against the enamel and keep it off the gums. That’s most of why it works better and bothers people less.
We offer take-home whitening kits with custom trays for patients who want to do the work at their own pace, usually over a week or two of short daily sessions. For patients who want a faster result before a wedding or a class reunion, an in-office session can lift several shades in a single visit. Which one fits depends on your schedule, your sensitivity, and how deep the staining goes.
Who's a Good Candidate for Whitening and Who Isn't
Whitening works best on natural tooth enamel that’s stained from food, drink, tobacco, or age. If that describes you and your teeth and gums are healthy, you’re likely a good candidate. Most adults in Pottsville, Schuylkill Haven, Orwigsburg, and the surrounding towns who ask about whitening fit this picture.
It doesn’t work the same way for everyone. Gray staining from certain antibiotics taken in childhood, deep internal discoloration from an old injury, or stains on a dead tooth often won’t respond well to bleaching. In those cases we may talk about other cosmetic options, like porcelain veneers or dental bonding, that cover the discoloration instead of lifting it.
We also won’t whiten teeth that have active decay, gum disease that hasn’t been treated, or large front-tooth restorations that would end up a different color than the teeth around them. None of that means you can’t improve how your smile looks. It just means the order of operations matters, and we’ll map it out before any gel goes in a tray.
What a Whitening Visit at Fellows & Smink Looks Like
Most whitening conversations start at a regular checkup. While you’re already in the chair, we can take a look, use the intraoral camera to show you exactly what’s staining and where, and pull up your digital X-rays with the Overjet Iris system to confirm there’s nothing underneath that needs attention first. You’ll see what we see on the screen.
If take-home trays are the plan, we take quick impressions of your upper and lower teeth and send them to the lab. A week or so later you come back to pick up your trays and a set of syringes of whitening gel. We show you how much gel to use, how long to wear the trays, and what to do if a tooth gets sensitive partway through. Most people wear them thirty minutes to an hour a day for one to two weeks.
For an in-office session, you’re in the chair for roughly an hour. We protect your gums, apply the gel in timed rounds, and rinse between applications. You can usually go straight back to work afterward. We’ll send you home with a short list of what to avoid eating and drinking for the first day or two, while the enamel re-mineralizes.
Keeping Your Results After Whitening
Whitening isn’t permanent. Coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon, and a glass of red wine at dinner will dim your results over time, and so will smoking. How long the brightness lasts depends mostly on what you put in your mouth and how well you keep up with cleanings.
Most patients touch up at home every six to twelve months with a night or two in their trays. We keep your tray molds on file, so when you run low on gel you can pick up more from us without paying for new trays. Regular cleanings with your hygienist also lift surface stains before they have a chance to set in.
If you’re thinking about whitening as the first step in a larger smile change, we’ll talk through that too. Sometimes whitening is all you need. Sometimes it’s the lead-in to bonding or veneers on a chipped front tooth. Either way, you’ll know the plan, the order, and the cost before we get started.
Talk to Us About Whitening
Call Fellows & Smink Dental Associates on West End Avenue in Pottsville to set up a consultation. We’ll look at what’s causing the staining, tell you what whitening can and can’t do for your teeth, and help you pick the option that fits your schedule.