$15 for Teeth Whitening at Uptown Dental ($400 Value)

So this is a take home do-it-yourself whitening kit sort of deal, right?

 

Wow, for a second there I thought I was on Twitter where my followers either want me to have really white teeth or look at their "personal" photos.

 

Not bad, you're basically getting custom trays for the $15 bucks, which i think is worth it. The $400 price is heavily overpriced for what you get, so this is something to take advantage of. Once you have the customer trays don't go back to buy their bleaching gel, just get the $5 CVS kit, it's basically the same stuff.

 

Is this one of those things where you pay 15 bucks for the whitening, but you pay 200 dollars for the initial exam and xrays?

Not saying it is, but there is no reason for any dentist to do this kind of thing...unless you are starving for patients, which I dont think is the case here.

Edit: The reason I bring up the initial exam and xrays is because it says "new clients only"...no dentist in their right minds would do anything other than an initial exam/xrays with new patients before doing other procedures.

 

Yup, exactly what I was thinking. $200 for those bitewings lol!

 

Not if they are a cosmetic dentist...I went to one that didnt do xrays or any usual dental work, only cosmetic. I chipped my teeth a bit and they evened it out and i also got the teeth whitening since he had a deal, but i forgot how much, maybe $150??

And i just clicked the link to re-read it and its gone, literally a "daily" deal and it's now the next day, so i guess that's the catch, only good for 24 hrs.
Like i said earlier, you can get the gel for $5 at CVS, really it's the gel and mouth tray, and i imagine it's a lot cheaper for the manuf. to make and even cheaper for the dentist...so theyre making a slight profit anyway and just hope the new customers to stay.

 

Well, its not very smart for a dentist to work without doing a full exam, xray, etc... In a case where you have a chipped tooth and are having it smoothed out, thats considered "emergency", so in those cases you can do the procedure without any background work.

As far as the gels, for the most part, the ones at CVS are adequate and similar to ones seen in dentists office. However, dentists have access to much stronger gels...those, you cant get anywhere.

Im just speaking from experience. A dentist that is willing to do a cleaning without an initial work up is just looking for the quick buck. I cant imagine having a new patient come in to see me and me giving them a cleaning without assessing the state of their dentition. What happens if the patient has periodontal disease? What about worn enamel? What about if the patient has fluorosis or tetracycline staining? All these things absolutely affect the whitening procedure.

Also, you absolutely need to do a scaling and prophylaxis before you do a whitening...therefore, going to the dentist and doing a whitening right off the bat is a disservice to the patient. You need to have all extrinsic stains removed and as little plaque accumulation as possible...otherwise, the patient is getting ripped off.

The order of appearance goes like this...

1) Initial exam/xray
2) Scaling and prophylaxis (cleaning)
3) Whitening

Edit: And for the record, Im a cosmetic dentist. Actually, there really is no such thing as a cosmetic dentist...they are just dentists that like to focus on cosmetics, but its not an actual specialty like endodontics, periodontics, etc...

 

Then it wouldn't be 15 bucks now would it??

 

I think you're just pissed you didn't think of this 15 dollar idea first. You could have made a whole 100 dollars from a day's work!

 

True, I'll come out with a 99 cent cleaning idea soon.

 

Could a visible inspection be enough for most of this? Maybe i was a special case? I take pretty good care of my teeth, never had a cavity or any issues with them, so maybe he figured they were good enough as is?

 

he can always copy it

 

LOL, Zing!

 

To a degree...but the best case scenario for the patient is to have their teeth cleaned and polished before the whitening, so that the gel is directly on the enamel with nothing else such as plaque or stains on the teeth. Could a visible inspection be enough? Probably.

In the end, I just think its in the patients best interest to have cleaning done before any other procedures are taken care of...whether its tooth whitening, extractions, or crowns.

You seem to have a good oral health history, so you're in much better standing than most of the population. When you got your whitening, did you have it done with tray/gel or did you do the whitening in the office with the light?

 

That was good. :grin:

But then, 99.9% of the dentists out there would copy it too, so it wouldnt be that exciting.

 

That was something else i was thinking of...it wasnt the in-office whitening, where i believe they apply the gel and then some sort of light/laser instantly whitens them, which is what i think you've been refering to. I got the trays, so that may be the difference? I think that's what this ad was for as well, not the in-office whitening.

 

I gave my wife a 99 cent cleaning last night!

EYO!

 

Yeah, I wasnt sure if the whitening you got was in-office or with the tray. If you are doing the whitening in office with the light, then it is almost a must to do a cleaning first. But, I would still recommend a cleaning before doing any sort of whitening. You'll get better results.

Still though, I just find it odd that a patient would come in, the dentist takes the mold for trays, and gives them the gel without really doing an initial exam. Again, not a terrible thing that the dentist did...and Im sure its something thats done thousands of times a day, but better results will be had with a proper cleaning.

Also I was telling another clutchfans member this... I prefer not to do trays, unless the patient really wants them. The reason I say that is because the gains in whitening compared to something like Crest white strips at a grocery store are not that much more, specially when you consider the costs to the patient. Best option is laser whitening...if thats too expensive, go with something you can find at your local store.