What to Eat (and Avoid) After Professional Teeth Whitening

The number of teeth-whitening products available to you can be confusing. How can you decide what to use? What’s safe?

One way to make a decision is to talk to an expert. Dr. Stephen Hiroshige and his staff are always happy to help our patients understand how teeth whitening works. We offer professional whitening in the form of a highly concentrated product you take home to use over a few weeks as well Zoom in-office whitening, using a specialized light to speed up the process.

Professional vs over-the-counter

You may be wondering if there’s a difference between what you can buy at the store and what you can get in our office. There are two key differences.

1. Custom trays

When you come to us for teeth whitening, Dr. Hiroshige makes an impression of your teeth, and you get custom-designed trays to use. This means the trays fit you perfectly, keeping the gel in contact with your teeth and preventing leaks.

2. Stronger solution

Because it’s considered dentist-supervised, our teeth whitening procedure can use a gel with a stronger concentration of hydrogen peroxide. This means you end up with a whiter smile in a shorter time. 

Food and your teeth

One reason, among others, that teeth become discolored is staining from some foods and beverages. During the time you’re using our gel and trays at home, you want to be especially careful about what you eat.

What to eat

While you’re working toward a whiter smile, you want to eat non-staining foods. That means aiming for lots of white foods like rice, chicken, potatoes, unsweetened yogurt, bananas, egg whites, and anything that wouldn’t stain your shirt if you spilled it. Drink water, plain or sparkling, milk, white lemonade, or coconut water.

What to avoid

During the time you’re whitening your teeth, you want to avoid foods and drinks that can cause staining. For example, blueberries and blackberries, marinara, soy sauce, red meat, and beverages such as coffee, tea, red wine, and dark-colored sodas can all cause staining.

The process of whitening your teeth leaves them temporarily dehydrated, which makes them more vulnerable to staining than under normal circumstances. You should wait at least 72 hours after using our whitening product to consume anything that could lead to staining. Otherwise, you risk stains that can’t be removed.

Learn more about whitening

If you’d like to learn more about teeth whitening and the procedure we offer, schedule an appointment with Dr. Hiroshige. We strive to help you enjoy both healthy and beautiful teeth, and Dr. Hiroshige can help you decide whether at-home whitening or Zoom will work better for you, or he may be able to suggest another approach to get you the smile you’ve always wished to have.