articles

My Teeth Whitening Experience at The Silverstrom Group

Some real me time! - with revisions and corrections from last week - sorry for the errors

By Andrea S., Summit Short Hills SoMa Macaroni Kid July 24, 2014
I was invited by my new advertiser, The Silverstrom Group, to visit to their dental office and have a free teeth whitening. Although I was really excited to get to know this dental group better and get my teeth whitened, I was a bit hesitant for two reasons.  First, I take really good care of my teeth and they are pretty white to start - so it was not going to be too dramatic. Second, I was worried if the results are not so dramatic, it could reflect poorly on product or the dental group. 

So this is my honest impression of the dental group. Upon arriving at the office, I was greeted by Kateryna. Kateryna and Stephanie had helped me book the appointment. The office is lovely, spa like space, in Livingston, even though it was under construction (the office had a leak in the roof from all of the snow melting and refreezing during this long harsh winter). Kateryna helped me complete the paperwork that I had already submitted electronically. As I waited a relatively short time to be seen, I chatted with some of the practice's patients.  

One of the patients explained that she has been seeing Dr. Gary since the practice moved to Livingston. She feels very that they take very good care of her.

After a few minutes, I was escorted into a lovely modern room. Erica and Dr. David and I discussed the pros and cons of the procedure and getting the best results.  Erica performed the entire procedure from start to finish.  Although the office offers the more well know Zoom! teeth whitening system, instead for me they decided to go with the KöR Whitening System. I know individual results vary, and my teeth were pretty white to start out and I am generally a pretty good patient. So Erica, prepared my teeth for the process, protecting my gums from the treatment.  Then she applied the gel to whiten my teeth. The product that they placed on my teeth, did not require a light; so for a little over an hour, I sat and watched a Netfilx movie that I had missed in the theater. Every so often she would come to check on me and would reapply the gel every 20 minutes.  I felt very well taken care of and as a parent, I had over an hour of what really was “ME” time.

Once the procedure was done we checked the shade again (about a shade lighter) and she created a teeth bleaching tray, that I will use to maintain the results. I will have to return to get the trays and the gel.

The last stop on my journey was to see Alex, who really was a breath of fresh air. Her enthusiasm is infectious and you can see she is genuinely happy to be there.  She helped me with the final paper work and “checking out.”

Although, I did not exit using their normal flow out of the office (again due to construction), I was very pleased with the experience.

So was it worth it?  Well although I have another dentist that I use locally, after the way was treated, I may consider switching practices.  My other dentist, also a great local dentist, ALWAYS seems to be trying to sell me something or tries to get me to worry about something else that I should be doing.  It was refreshing to be at a dentist that seem to only focus on my care and not on increasing the bill or reimbursement from insurance.

How did the procedure turn out?  Well, maybe you should be the judge.  Here is before:

after whitening.jpg
Here is after 

before whitening.jpg

Okay, not too dramatic, but my teeth in the after pictures are brighter and this was using the same camera in the same room. The main picture at the top of the article was taken in my bathroom with similar lighting (natural lighting changed a little, because it was about almost 2 hours later). Overall, I am pleased. Would I do it again? I am not sure, but I will certainly be going back to practice for my follow up and possibly to tackle another dental issue that I have been grappling with for a while, grinding my teeth. Even though an additional whitening may not be in immediate future, I do and will always welcome important “ME” time and after this experience I may even try to do it more often.  

A huge THANK YOU to the entire Silverstrom Group Staff.

An additional note: My whitening experience was completely customized to my needs and teeth. The dental group customizes each procedure to their patients, so your experience may differ from mine.