This Month: The Importance of Personalization

This month’s edition of The BEYOND^® Messenger focuses on the importance of personalized service in our business. For dentists and aestheticians, we have included useful information on how to offer your patients or clients the best possible teeth whitening service. For distributors, we have included useful marketing projects and sales strategies that you can employ when selling BEYOND^® products in your region. Whether you are a distributor or an end user of our products, this issue of The BEYOND^® Messenger will improve your understanding of the science behind teeth whitening and prepare you on how best to present BEYOND^® products to your customers.

Sincerely,

The BEYOND^® International Marketing Department

 

Each individual client or patient needs to have a special teeth whitening plan developed for them in order to ensure that they receive the absolute best service and whitening results from their BEYOND® treatment. Tooth discolorations can be the result of extrinsic or intrinsic stains, aging, or a combination of all three. The following includes a brief description of the differences between extrinsic and intrinsic stains and several recommended treatment plans.*

*Note: These treatment recommendations are specific for the in-office BEYOND® Whitening Accelerator Professional Edition with 35% hydrogen peroxide. For treatment recommendations for the BEYOND® WhiteSpa system please see the next article.

Extrinsic Discolorations
Extrinsic discolorations are caused by a variety of factors. These include oral bacteria, the use of tobacco products, consumption of colored food and drinks, gingival bleeding, restorations, or certain medications.

Intrinsic discoloration
Intrinsic discoloration is usually the result of irregularities in the structure and thickness seen during the formation of tooth enamel. Other factors contributing to irregularities in tooth structure can be irregular dentin formation and excessive consumption of fluoride. Intrinsic stains can also be the result of abnormal colorations caused by hyperbilurubinemia, porphyria, and tetracycline during the formation of the teeth.

Recommendations for Single In-office Treatment Sessions
The following are examples of discolorations that require only one in-office whitening session to achieve optimal results:
Recommendation #1: Teeth with an even color and well-formed enamel will only require one in-office treatment to achieve ideal results. The recommended treatment time is eight minutes, three times, for a total of 24 minutes. This treatment time can be varied depending on the individual. Patients who use tobacco products may want to extend the treatment time to 10-12 minutes per cycle.
Recommendation #2: Teeth with minor stains from medications, but with well-formed enamel should see the treatment cycles extended to 12-15 minutes each.
Example A: Patient has teeth stained by tetracycline, translucent enamel, and gray dentin. Recommended treatment: Extend treatment cycle to 12 minutes, three cycles.
Example B: Patient has teeth with gray discoloration. Recommended treatment: Extend treatment cycle to 15 minutes for the first two cycles and shorten the third cycle to eight minutes to minimize sensitivity.
NOTE: When the treatment cycle time is extended to 12-15 minutes, new whitening gel should be applied halfway through the cycle to keep the gel from drying too quickly.

Recommendations for Multiple In-office Treatment Sessions
For patients with teeth that have medium-levels of discoloration from medications, more than one in-office treatment will be necessary to achieve the best results. The treatments also need to be spaced out so that tooth shade and enamel formation can be re-evaluated following each treatment. The time between the first and second treatment should be one week (no more than two weeks) and a third treatment (if needed) should be four weeks after the second treatment. Each cycle should be extended to 12 or 15 minutes for per cycle.

Recommendations for Combination In-office and At-home Treatments
For patients with severe intrinsic discolorations and uneven extrinsic stains, it is recommended that they do a combination of in-office and at-home whitening treatments. There are several at-home whitening options for the patient to consider, including a tray system, or the e-Bright Tooth Whitening Accelerator Home Edition. The patient should begin their at-home treatment within 24 hours after their last in-office treatment. After one week for the tray system, or three days for the e-Bright, an optional second in-office treatment can be performed. Following this treatment, another round of the at-home bleaching should be repeated.

Recommended Treatment Protocols for Special Cases (Enamel hypoplasia, Fluoride spots, and Pre-restorations)
For patients with enamel hypoplasia, it is better to whiten the teeth before undergoing a resin restoration procedure because the resin can then be matched to the new whitened enamel. There are two options for performing the treatment on patients with enamel hypoplasia:
Option A: Apply the gingival barrier to the area on the tooth with enamel hypoplasia. This will protect against sensitivity. Take care to shorten the treatment time if the patient has any sensitivity.
Option B: The patient can whiten their teeth at home with the tray system or the e-Bright Tooth Whitening Accelerator. This option is recommended for those patients with fluoride stains.

Patients who have just undergone orthodontic treatments can whiten their teeth beginning four weeks after removing their braces. The treatment will remove any yellow discolorations that formed due to inadequate brushing habits. Take care to ensure that all cement composite from the brackets is removed completely before beginning the whitening treatment.

Patients who are scheduled to undergo a restoration procedure should whiten their teeth one week before the restoration procedure to allow the whitened color to settle so that a proper color match can be made.

 

We have received a number of questions from aestheticians who have requested more information on the pre-treatment client consultation that we recommend in our instruction manual and DVD. Due to the high demand, we have developed a checklist for this pre-treatment consultation that covers all important questions that the client should be asked prior to undergoing the BEYOND^® WhiteSpa treatment. We have also included several treatment recommendations for those harder cases.

This document is available upon request from info@beyonddent.com (any language) or can also be downloaded here (English only).

 

 

This column is going to be a new monthly feature of The BEYOND^® Messenger and will feature an easy-to-implement marketing tactic for distributors that will help you increase your sales!

This month’s tactic focuses on the importance of performing live demonstrations when pitching a sale. A customer is more likely to buy a product if they can see it in action and see the results for themselves firsthand.  Tooth whitening is still a relatively new idea for some people, and they may need additional persuading in order to make the purchase.

For those markets where teeth whitening is already very popular and there is in high demand, the live demonstrations are still a valuable marketing strategy. Setting our system up against a competitor’s or showing potential buyers firsthand that the treatment is safe, comfortable, and convenient is often enough to win them over.

We recommend that the full treatment be performed with any live demonstration, but if time is an issue, then performing two, 8 minute cycles for the professional system or two, 20 minute cycles for the WhiteSpa system should be enough to show excellent results and give the potential client a better understanding of the product and how it works.

 

Dr. Jenny is our resident dentist and is an expert on teeth whitening and all things dental-related. Feel free to ask her any questions you may have about our company, our products, or dental issues in general. You can submit a question to her via info@beyonddent.com.

Q:  I have some patients whose teeth are rebounding to their original color within 6-8 weeks following the treatment. Why is this happening? They have been very careful in following the post-treatment instructions.  How can we prolong the color of the post-whitened teeth?

A: If you have patients whose teeth are rebounding in color following the treatment, they will need to have additional touch-up sessions. For those people who have severely stained teeth, they may require more than one treatment to achieve their maximum whitening results. If their original color is rebounding within 6-8 weeks, it is because the initial treatment only removed the extrinsic stains on the surface of the tooth enamel. Their intrinsic, harder-to-remove stains are still there and are resurfacing in the weeks following the treatment. I would recommend doing another two sessions on their teeth and increasing the treatment time to 12 minutes per session. Then you can reassess their situation and determine if a third, 8 minute session is needed. This is why we recommend that every patient have a pre-treatment consultation with their dentist to determine the best treatment plan for their individual situation. Not every patient is the same and it is important that their individual needs be taken into account. I have attached two documents that you may find useful in developing the appropriate treatment plans for those patients with severe stains. While these documents were originally written for our Asian patients, I think that you will find them very informative.

Q: Is it possible to control the color of the results such that we can match a patient’s teeth to their existing bridge?  I have a patient who has C2 teeth and a B2 colored bridge. Can I match their teeth to the bridge?

A: It is impossible to control the color of the patient's teeth as they are whitening to that accuracy. My recommendation is to do two 8 minute sessions on the first day. Then have the client come back the next day (no more than 24 hours later) to assess the color change. If their teeth still need to be whitened additionally in order to make the color match, do another 8 minute session. In this way, you will be able to have some control over the whitening results and be able to match the surrounding enamel with the bridge as accurately as possible. It is important that you discuss your patients' options with them beforehand. If they want to whiten their teeth past the color of the bridge, they will need to consider replacing the bridge to match their new teeth color. If they decide that they want to replace the bridge, you should first do the bleaching and then have the patient come back one week later to assess the color of their teeth. This will make for the most accurate shade assessment because it will give the teeth time to settle into their new shade.

Q: How long will the halogen light bulb in the accelerator last? Should I worry about it affecting results as it gets older?

A: The halogen bulbs all have a lifespan of approximately 600 hours. We also include a spare bulb with your accelerator as an emergency replacement. You do not need to worry about the bulb becoming weaker as it ages, because like all light bulbs, it will simply burn out when it has reached the end of its lifespan. If you are worried about tracking the lifespan of the light bulb, the easiest way to do this would be to monitor the number of hours that your machine has been in use using this feature on the control panel.  We also sell replacement halogen light bulbs if needed and you can contact your local BEYOND® office or products agent to order these.