Thank you to everyone for your continued patronage over the past year. We here at BEYOND™ have thoroughly enjoyed working with each and every one of you and we look forward to continuing our work together in 2008.

Have a wonderful, safe holiday season with your families and friends.

-From all of us at BEYOND™ Dental & Health

Thank you to all of our faithful readers! If you are receiving The BEYOND™ WhiteSpa Messenger this month it is because you actively decided to receive a copy from us. We’ve switched over to a new server-based service that ensures timely delivery and safeguards our mailing list.

This new service also ensures that you don’t receive any spam emails or viruses. Please tell all of your clients and colleagues to subscribe to The BEYOND™ WhiteSpa Messenger so that they can continue receiving our monthly newsletters full of useful information!

To subscribe, please fill out the online form here. Just copy and paste this line into an email to your clients so that they too can receive the newsletter.

We are also working on expanding our language offerings and The BEYOND™ WhiteSpa Messenger is currently available in Spanish, Arabic, and German! If you want to receive The BEYOND™ WhiteSpa Messenger in one of these languages, just resubmit the sign-up form and select your language preference.

We are adding a new section to our website that will help interested customers locate the dentist nearest to them who offers the BEYOND™ whitening treatment. This new section is already live on our website and can be found here. To post your contact information on our site, fill out of the form on that page and we will put your information live on the website within 1-2 business days.

For distributors, you can view other BEYOND™ distributors around the world here and fill out the same form on that page.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@beyondwhitespa.com.

The BEYOND™ WhiteSpa system is designed to minimize sensitivity during and after the treatment. However some clients may still have some sensitivity from the treatment. What can you do to prepare him or her for this and what can you recommend to help alleviate his or her sensitivity?

Tooth sensitivity occurs when the whitening gel travels too far into the teeth during the treatment and irritates the nerves in the teeth. This is a temporary side effect, and no permanent damage is caused, but for some clients it can be extremely unpleasant and painful. Since we want to make the BEYOND™ WhiteSpa treatment as comfortable as possible, there are several ways that you can assess a client’s likelihood of developing sensitivity during and after the treatment and there are several recommendations that you can make on how to alleviate the sensitivity after the treatment.

The most important point is to warn the client beforehand that they may experience sensitivity from the treatment. Clients respond better to an unpleasant situation if he or she is aware of the possibility of it happening and are therefore not surprised. When you are doing the pre-treatment examination, keep an eye out for several red flags. These are white spots on the teeth, cracks or chips in the tooth enamel, visible cavities, or deep grooves in the enamel surface. Any of these may increase the chance of the client experiencing sensitivity because the integrity of the enamel has been compromised and the gel will be able to travel faster into the tooth.

If a client has inflamed or swollen gums, they should talk to their dentist before undergoing the BEYOND™ WhiteSpa treatment. This is an indication of a more serious oral health issue and should be treated before using BEYOND™ WhiteSpa. A client with visible cavities or broken teeth with exposed roots should also talk to their dentist beforehand.

Clients who know that he or she is prone to have sensitive teeth can also take an over-the-counter analgesic (i.e. Ibuprofen or Tylenol) before the treatment. You should also suggest that all clients avoid any extremely hot or cold foods for the next 24 hours.

BEYOND™ now makes a toothpaste specially for clients with sensitive teeth. Based on our popular BEYOND™ Pearl White Whitening Toothpaste, the new BEYOND™ Pearl White for Sensitive Teeth will help those clients who are more susceptible to experiencing sensitivity. Contact your BEYOND™ products dealer today to learn more about this exciting new product!

The best example of over bleaching that comes to mind is the episode of Friends (an American television show) where Ross leaves his whitening gel on for too long and ends up with blinding white teeth. In the episode, his teeth are so white that they glow in the dark!

Obviously this is just Hollywood overdramatizing the situation for comedic purposes. However, over whitening is a very common question that many of your clients will ask about. Can you over bleach your teeth? And what are the consequences, if any, of doing this?

A common misconception is that teeth whitening removes or in some way alters the tooth enamel to produce the whiter, post-treatment color. This is not the case. The science behind teeth whitening involves the dissolving of organic stains found inside of the teeth, underneath the enamel. These organic stains are what give the teeth a discolored appearance because the stains can be seen through the enamel layer. The enamel layer is temporarily dehydrated by this process, but the mouth’s saliva will naturally rehydrate the enamel within 24 hours and there is no permanent change to the enamel or tooth structure from the treatment.

However, as with anything, teeth whitening should be done in moderation. There have been numerous clinical studies performed to determine if frequent or prolonged exposure to hydrogen peroxide-based teeth whitening products is dangerous to your health or damaging to your teeth. All studies have been conclusive that the integrity of the tooth enamel is not compromised by the whitening procedures and that whitening with hydrogen peroxide is safe. However, over-whitening can irritate the surrounding gum tissue and/or lead to increased sensitivity during treatment.

What about the post-treatment color? Will some people end up with teeth as white as Ross’s if they whiten their teeth too frequently? The answer is that everyone’s teeth whiten differently, depending on his or her oral health and the nature of his or her stains. So it is hard to pinpoint exactly what shade his or her teeth will be after the treatment. For each individual, there is a threshold color that his or her teeth will not be able to move beyond. For some clients, this may be at the top of the whitening scale, but for others, it may be somewhere in the middle. It is important that you establish realistic expectations with each client to ensure that he or she is comfortable with his or her whitening results. We like to tell our clients to under-promise and over-deliver.

So in conclusion, it is very difficult to over whiten your teeth. However it is important to note that we do not encourage clients to whiten their teeth with the BEYOND™ WhiteSpa treatment more frequently than once every three months. This is because with continuous and prolonged usage of teeth whitening products, you are more likely to experience sensitivity during or after the treatment. We want the BEYOND™ WhiteSpa treatment to be as relaxing and enjoyable an experience as possible.

If you encounter a client who is insistent on wanting to bleach his or her teeth on a more frequent schedule, let us know. There are alternative treatment programs that we can help you develop for those clients with special needs or requests.

To ask Dr. Jenny a question, please send an email addressed to her to info@beyondwhitespa.com.

Q: How long after radiation treatment (chemotherapy) can a person have their teeth whitened?

A: There is no set time frame for how long after chemotherapy the client should wait before undergoing the BEYOND™ WhiteSpa treatment because it depends on the individual and his or her current state of oral health.

I recommend that the client visit their dentist or medical physician before beginning the treatment. This is because chemotherapy can have serious oral health side-effects and a dentist or doctor should check first to make sure that there is no evidence of gum damage, open sores, dry mouth, or other side-effects of the chemotherapy.

You can tell your client that the BEYOND™ WhiteSpa procedure will not compromise the integrity of healthy tooth enamel. It does dehydrate the enamel to a small degree, but your saliva will naturally rehydrate the teeth within 24 hours. So there is no lasting impact on healthy tooth enamel from the whitening treatment. However if the client is experiencing dry mouth or other side-effects from the chemotherapy, then he or she should wait until these symptoms are alleviated and he or she has spoken with his or her dentist about the appropriate treatment(s), if any, for his or her condition.

Another point that may come up: The client does not need to worry about excess exposure to UV light from our whitening treatment. Unlike other teeth whitening systems on the market, we filter out all harmful UV light from our light source, so if he or she has undergone photo-chemotherapy or has a history of skin cancer and is more susceptible to UV light, then BEYOND™ is the correct treatment for this client to consider.