When someone suggested we try whitening our teeth, apart from being slightly offended, we were a little bit scared of trying it after hearing so many horror stories. A colleague had once had to stop a treatment half way through because she was in so much pain.
Pulling ourselves together we booked an appointment at a shiny new clinic called Health Plus at Al Bandar.
A couple of days before our treatment we got a surprise phone call from our dentist, Dr Shuaib Khaderi, to talk us through the procedure. Such personal attention immediately put us at ease, despite him advising that we popped a couple of Panadol before we arrived and brought our iPod along as it was going to be “a bit boring”.
The morning arrived and clutching our Nano in our sweaty palm we hopped into the dentist’s chair in the rather swish clinic and found ourselves gazing at a rather lovely view of Al Bandar Marina. Another brief run through with Dr Khaderi out of the way and it was on with the treatment.
We started with a quick polish to remove any surface debris that might stop the whitening process. Dr Khaderi explained that a full cleaning might make our gums bleed, which again would hinder the whitening process.
Next we had a rather strange contraption inserted in our mouth that would allow our teeth to remain exposed while our jaw could relax. Once it was in, we resembled a horse that had just eaten a lemon, but seeing as there was no audience except Dr Khaderi and his assistant we did not mind so much.
The treatment was done in four stages; each lasting around 15 minutes. The hydrogen peroxide bleach was applied then a laser was directed at the teeth to speed up the process. Another fetching addition of a pair of red goggles completed our look for this procedure.
Three rounds in we didn’t see what all the fuss about and we were utterly convinced we’d make round four. That was until the three-minute buzzer sounded and our first “zinger” took hold.
This is how Dr Khaderi described the sensation of the bleach making contact with the nerves in our teeth. Zinger is putting it mildly, we’d opt for something more like a “yowser”. Waving a little white flag, we sheepishly admitted that we weren’t up to round four.
As it turned out we didn’t need it, our teeth were as white as they could be and Dr Khaderi was very happy with our results.
Smothering our teeth in desensitising gel he talked us through the after-care procedure, which basically consisted of us being forbidden from eating or drinking anything “dark” for 48 hours.
With more desensitising gel, a set of moulds and a further booster kit – to be used in 12 months time – in hand, we were done.
