70 October 2007 dentaltown.com. dreamsmile Posted: 6/19/2007 Post: 1 of 104 Total Posts: 83. AnnieB925. Posted: 6/26/2007 Post: 6 of 104

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1 Boring Bleaching A discussion among dental professionals on the s of Dentaltown.com. Is bleaching teeth fun anymore? Have you lost interest in this procedure? Check out this discussion that includes the popular Deep Bleaching technique developed by Dr. Rod Kurthy. Log on today to participate in this discussion and thousands more. Posted: 6/19/2007 Post: 1 of 104 Discussions on this forum seem to have hit a dead-end, with no new comments/ questions for almost a week now. Do you think this reflects the state of whitening in general? Has bleaching become less exciting to us and the public? Where do you think whitening will go from here? Are there any innovative new products/techniques on the horizon? Getting a patient from A4 to B1 still gives me a huge buzz! What are your thoughts, fellow whitening enthusiasts? Mike AnnieB925 Posted: 6/24/2007 Post: 2 of 104 Total Posts: 635 For the large majority of our patients, we use the Opalescence take-home trays with excellent results. Very few patients want/need to spend $1,000 on teeth whitening. We ve tried many techniques/products with various results, which leads us back to being most comfortable knowing what we suggest will work. Posted: 6/26/2007 Post: 6 of 104 Does everyone agree that a combination of at-home and in-office whitening will always give better results with or without a light than at-home whitening by itself? Mike drance Posted: 6/26/2007 Posts: 8 and 13 of 104 Total Posts: 1954 After bleaching teeth for more than 20 years, the deep bleaching technique is far superior to any other method. People love it, and we probably do at least one case a day, our fee is $800. We use the light for part of the time, and I have heard that the same technique without the light also works well. After the first in-office and two weeks of take home (which is already better results than take-home alone), the biggest change in color happens in the final appointment. It always happens that way, so call it a scam if you want, but the results speak for themselves. [Posted: 6/26/2007] I think that the light increases the heat of the bleach, which we know increases the oxygen release. We get such good results I don t want change what we are doing. If the whole technique works well, call it a scam or whatever you want, I don t really care and neither do my patients. We use the AcquaBrite products with great success. Michael Posted: 6/26/2007 Post: 14 of 104 I use the in-office product Sapphire, which I find gives adequate whitening with little sensitivity. It is manufactured by Den-Mat. As a stand alone product, it is effective, although it tends to rebound quite fast, but following a few weeks of home whitening it can take an A4/A3.5 case to an A1. continued on page October 2007 dentaltown.com

2 Here s my two cents. I bought the Luma Light when it first came out. Quick and okay results, but rapid relapse. I started to use the light with take-home to follow and had much better, consistent results. Were they better than the at-home alone? It s hard to say because everybody bleaches differently, but I d say not really much, if any, better. A few years ago I bought Rod s book (I ll get back to that later) and started using his techniques. First off, the tray fabrication process is different than I was taught, but the fit of the trays is clearly better now. I honestly do believe that the trays hold the bleach in better and probably do produce a positive pressure in the tray to force the bleach into the tooth. I think this is the main key to the deep bleaching system. Making a tray is boring though, and little excitement is generated about that. In the old system, you had to treat the enamel and later seal the enamel to allow deeper penetration of the bleach. Wow, I thought, something different than I was taught, and it is actually on a patient rather than a plaster model... this is exciting. I am doing something that somebody else is not doing... I m offering a unique service... and it got the hype because it did work. Now we know that it is the strength of bleach, the duration of contact with the tooth, and the penetration of the bleach into the tooth that are the main keys. The lights don t whiten teeth. The lights, or lasers, or whatever only cause a breakdown of the peroxide to produce the active oxygen molecules that do the bleaching. Heat sources do the same... they break down the peroxide to make it more active. Does it matter if you use a light to activate the peroxide? In my opinion, no. The AcquaBrite products use a double-barrel chemically activated peroxide over a light source. The same active oxygen molecule results... light or no light. This new system is not as cool as the expensive light so it isn t as fun to talk about. I think this is why there is a lack of discussion. The new deepbleaching protocol does not require the light and doesn t need it. I just finished a tetracycline case last week with excellent results, and my light stood there in the corcontinued from page 70 It is meant to be used with their Sapphire plasma arc light. This curing light has completely changed my life in cosmetic dentistry as it cures composite in three to five seconds and is superb for laminates. So even if you agree that a light for whitening is a scam, this product is at least very useful for other purposes. Mike drance Post: 27 of 104 Total Posts: 1954 I think that a lot of us use it, but it is not the type of thing that people get really excited about, except our patients. Dentists want to show off things that require more skill, like veneers and CERECs. Michael Post: 28 of 104 Michael, I think there must be another explanation. When Rod Kurthy first brought out the concept of deep bleaching, this forum was full of enthusiasm from dentists extolling its virtues and happy to share photos. Since the new AcquaBrite products have been made available there has been a virtual silence and an absence of impressive photographic results. I think that most agree that a combination between at-home and in-office treatments give the best results, however, Townies seem to have real reservations on the new products/protocol. What do you think? busterlou45 Post: 32 of 104 Total Posts: 176 continued on page October 2007 dentaltown.com

3 continued from page 72 ner of the room collecting dust. Now, someone here said that the light produces heat, and you know what? I do buy that and I ve never thought of that. I might go back to using my R2D2-looking light and see. Rod tells us that the light doesn t hurt to use, but is not necessary with the system. However, I do know that heat will also initiate breakdown of the peroxide, as well as excite the molecules to make them more active, so there might be some merit. My only concern would be whether the heat would distort the nice fit of the trays, which as I have said is the key. I believe any bleach will work at home, but the in-office stuff from AcquaBrite rocks in my office. Back to the book. Books are boring to a lot of people... me included. I want a DVD or seminar. I want some expensive piece of equipment that I can feel satisfied with. Everybody wants to know what the book has to offer, but nobody wants to buy it. Gas is almost four dollars a gallon. We d spend whatever it takes to fill our tank, but won t spend the $350 on the book everybody used to talk about. If you don t like it, sell it on ebay. Go to ebay and you won t find any for sale because it is worth it. For the cost of one bleaching case, you can get everything you wanted to know, and in my opinion, do a better job at what you already know how to do... but in a more boring way... without the light that has been marketed so long. I don t know Rod, I ve never met him, and it took me a while to buy his book too. Believe me, I wouldn t waste my time giving it praise if I didn t believe in it, and in fact, I would tell you if I wasn t impressed. I wasn t impressed with my Luma Light after I had some experience with it. I saw some short-term improvements, but a lot of relapse, and the final product was not as good as my old bleaching system was. I wouldn t buy it again. That was $6,000 or something, this book is $350. My ROI [return on investment] is much better with the book. eeznogood Posted: 6/28/2007 Post: 38 of 104 Total Posts: 565 Thanks for the tip. I haven t tried doing this with any other products. I tried the one-hour in-office thing with Den-Mat products and light and other product as well, like POLA office, and got no color shift at all with both techniques. Incidentally, pain or sensitivity was not an issue with any of these products. I didn t do it on a large pool of patients, but the few failures were enough to discourage me. And since most companies were advertising a one-hour technique, I decided to drop them. Then I heard of deep bleaching, tried it, and I was very satisfied. I ve been doing it for a couple of months now and have had five cases. Two are done; three are ongoing or will be soon. Basically, what you are saying is that other techniques will get me as white? It is very possible. But I believe that Rod s claim to fame is that he will get you super white in less time and less hassle if you apply his technique properly, which is why I jumped on the wagon. So far I am satisfied. Thanks for this wonderful and civil conversation. I m off for today, but will be checking back regularly. Good night. Posted: 6/29/2007 Post: 39 of 104 I agree with you that one-hour whitening by itself is less effective than at-home bleaching and deep bleaching, although I am surprised you got no improvement with it. Try Den-Mat Sapphire. The original concept of deep bleaching was around a long time before the AcquaBrite products were advised. In fact in Rod s original posts he was using Opalescence and Rembrandt one-hour and the photos were spectacular. continued on page October 2007 dentaltown.com

4 continued from page 74 AcquaBrite was brought in as a non-sensitive alternative to these other materials. However, despite some nice photos posted very occasionally by amongst others Rod and Michael (on this thread), the results are, in my opinion, less impressive and the technique is a little messy, relatively expensive to the dentist and can result in gingival burning and a little sensitivity to the patient so where are the advantages? I have no problem using the gingival block-out materials with other one-hour materials which takes me five minutes to place and is appreciated by patients far more than the gingival burning you showed in the after photo. If you re happy with the materials great. Getting dramatic results gives me a real buzz! Personally, I m still testing different combination of materials other than AcquaBrite, while using deep bleaching trays and trying to use desensitizers before placing the one-hour gel. Will keep you posted. Mike Glenn Poch Posted: 6/29/2007 Post: 42 of 104 Total Posts: 1884 If you do a search, I m almost positive you will see a thread that has Rod admitting to this. Hopefully Rod will see this thread and comment as I hate to speak for him. Rod EDITOR S NOTE: The following post was edited for length. Please visit Posted: 6/30/2007 Dentaltown.com for the entire text. Post: 44 of 104 Hey guys, Michael asked me to get involved here. Sorry that I didn t Total Posts: 8091 see this thread before there s a lot going on. I ll talk about that later. So, I went through the thread and would like to answer some of the questions. Are lights a scam? Wow, good question. First, I am not the chief of the ethics police, so I will just state a few of my beliefs. Dentistry is a business, and a business strives to give its customers what they want. So if they want a bleaching light, is it a scam to give it to them if you re not charging even one cent more because of using it? That s not a statement, it s a question. I don t know. Or, because we re health professionals, does that put us in a different category as far as snake oil? Hmmm. Maybe. I think most of us agree that lights are unnecessary so does that put their use in terms of a placebo? Yeah, I guess. And if a placebo helps a patient psychologically, is it in the best interest of the patient? Yeah, I guess. And will some 60 Minutes type program pick up on the talk about lights being worthless? I suppose it s possible. For me, I do not use lights anymore. But I sure will not point my fingers at dentists who do. I think that s a very personal question we ve all got to answer for ourselves. As for the statement about patients asking for the lights here s how I handle that. If they ask, we simply tell them that we use something far better, and we talk about Deep Bleaching TM. We show them the photos, but far more effective is that we show them our own before-andafter photos. When you show a patient your own before photos with your pre-op shade tab in the photo, and then FREE FACTS, circle 3 on card continued on page October 2007 dentaltown.com

5 continued from page 76 you pick up the same shade tab and hold it up against your teeth right in front of the patient, first they gasp, then they ask how quickly they can start, and then they pull out their credit card. Ah yes it s the old seeing is believing trick! So OK, think about it what is the light really supposed to do? It s supposed to accelerate the liberation of the oxygen. How can that be done? Sure, a light will help, but it will be so infinitesimal that in a practical sense, you ll typically see no difference. Or we can use heat but as dentists we realize that heat can be damaging to pulps if we go beyond just a few degrees. Or we can use a chemical accelerator. Yeah, now that is the ticket. We choose how quickly we want oxygen liberated we have total control. So why do we need a light or heat? We don t. But, as practitioners we also realize that there is more to treating a patient than simply physical there is mental also. So that is where the decision making comes in for each individual dentist. Well, I ve been dreading this, but I guess this is as good a time as any I need to let you all know that I am no longer associated with AcquaMed in any way. Please don t ask me anything about it, as I really don t want to talk about it. Anyway, because of this, I felt compelled to form my own company, Evolve Dental Technologies, Inc., to provide bleaching products that, based on the clinical testing I ve done over the last four years, I will specifically provide to be used with my Deep Bleaching TM Technique. Since this is my own company, I have the freedom to do, say, and provide any darned thing I want. If there is a change that I want made with products, or want dentists to be given specific information on the phone, etc., I m totally free to do that. I will be able to personally approve anything that this company provides. I m sick and tired of so many dentists thinking they re doing deep bleaching, simply because they read some small instruction sheet that came with a bleaching gel kit, or because they read some short article, or because they listened to me on some tape interview. These dentists who only think they know how to do Deep Bleaching, but really don t, end up having less-than-stellar results and think that Deep Bleaching isn t all that great. Well, no more. You see, we dentists hate to spend money on a book. We ll spend money to go to a lecture or to buy some product, but when it comes to a book that will teach us what we need to know to make thousands and thousands of dollars while making patients happy, we just don t seem to get it. Bottom line is that I ve always offered a 45-day satisfaction guarantee anyway. I don t want anyone to be stuck with a book they don t like or want and to date, the return rate is seven percent. That works out to one book returned out of every 143. I m told this is really stupid of me from a financial standpoint, but I will not provide any Deep Bleaching products to anyone who doesn t have the Deep Bleaching training manual. Deep Bleaching is my baby. It s the real deal. I will no longer agree to having dentists simply use Deep Bleaching products, and think they re doing Deep Bleaching simply because someone told them they are. Rod Find it online at This is an excerpt from the Dentaltown s. To read the complete thread or to join in the conversation please visit type in Boring Bleaching in the search text box and click, Search. 78 October 2007 dentaltown.com

Are You Searching A Professional Cosmetic Dentist?

Are You Searching A Professional Cosmetic Dentist? Once it comes to the appearance and health of our teeth, most of the people are involved in doing everything they can to make their teeth look healthy