After Teeth Whitening: Aftercare Guide

Your teeth have been whitened at the clinic under your dentist's supervision. The treatment is done. The next few days decide how long that whiteness will last.

Whitening gel temporarily removes the protective layer from the surface of your teeth. Until that layer comes back, your teeth soak up colour far more easily than usual. That is why what you eat in the first days really matters.

On this page we explain what you can eat, which things are normal, and when to call us. If anything is on your mind, call us.

Note: This page gives general information. If your dentist told you something different, follow what your dentist told you.

After Your Whitening

What Can You Eat in the First Three Weeks?

The rule is simple. Look at your plate: if something would stain a white tablecloth, it will stain your teeth.

Safe to eat:

• White cheese, plain yoghurt, milk, ayran
• Chicken, turkey, fish
• Rice, plain pasta, potato, bread
• Eggs and omelette with white cheese
• Banana, peeled apple, pear, cauliflower, courgette
• Water, plain sparkling water, plain milk instead of milky coffee

Stay away from these for three weeks:

• Tea, coffee, cola, fruit juice, red wine
• Anything with tomato sauce, gravy or heavy spices
• Chocolate, dark fruit, beetroot, spinach
• Ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar
• Cigarettes and shisha

These Are Normal, Do Not Worry

These are the things our patients worry about most after whitening.

• You may see white patches on your teeth. During the procedure the tooth surface loses water for a while and looks more matt and blotchy. Pale spots that were already in your enamel suddenly stand out. As the tooth takes its moisture back, this usually disappears within a few days and the colour evens out.
• After a few days your teeth may not look as white as on day one. Straight after treatment the teeth are dehydrated, which makes them look whiter than they really are. As the moisture returns, the shade settles slightly. So the way they look a week later is your real result. Nothing has gone backwards.
• You may get sudden short jolts, like a pinprick. These are common after whitening and last only seconds. They are usually strongest in the first 24 hours, then fade over the next few days.
• Cold sensitivity can last a few days. The tooth surface is temporarily more permeable, so cold gets through more easily. It settles as the surface returns to normal. A sensitivity toothpaste does the job during this period.
• Part of your gum may have turned white. Where the gel touched the gum, that area goes white for a while and can feel like a mild burn. It returns to its normal colour by itself within a few hours. There is no lasting damage.

Call Us Straight Away

• If sensitivity lasts more than three days or is getting worse. What we expect is sensitivity that eases a little every day. If it is increasing or dragging on, we need to look, because there may be decay or a crack underneath that has nothing to do with the whitening.
• If the pain is bad enough to need a painkiller. That is not expected. Call us and we can put you on a sensitivity protocol.
• If the white patch on your gum is still there the next day. It normally clears within a few hours. If it has not, we need to see it.
• If you use home trays and the tray is irritating your gum. The edge of the tray may be pressing on the gum. Stop using it and come in so we can trim it.

What Helps With Sensitivity

• Use a sensitivity toothpaste. Toothpastes containing potassium nitrate or stannous fluoride give relief. After you finish brushing, rub a little of the paste onto the sensitive area with your finger and leave it without rinsing. That makes it work better.
• Keep everything lukewarm for a few days. Iced drinks and very hot soup set the sensitivity off in the early days. Anything lukewarm sits in the comfortable range.
• Use a soft brush and do not stop brushing. Cutting back on brushing because of sensitivity only makes things worse. Carry on brushing gently with a soft-bristled brush.

Limits You Should Know About

• Fillings, crowns and bonding do not whiten. Whitening gel only works on natural tooth tissue. If you have a filling or bonding on your front teeth, that area can end up looking darker as the teeth around it lighten. This is not a failure, it is how the material behaves. If the colour difference bothers you, we replace the filling to match the new shade. The right order is whitening first, replacement afterwards.
• Not every kind of discolouration responds to whitening. Surface staining from tea, coffee and cigarettes responds very well. Discolouration caused by antibiotics or coming from inside the tooth gives a more limited result. We discuss how your own teeth are likely to respond at your examination.
• The whiteness is not permanent. No whitening lasts forever. In someone who drinks coffee and smokes, the colour comes back sooner. In someone who does neither, it holds for a long time. Nobody can give you an exact number of months. Top-up sessions keep the result going.
• Whitening does not treat decay or tartar. It only lightens the colour. Regular professional cleaning and check-ups are what keep the result healthy, and whitening works far better in a mouth that is already clean.

Why the White Diet?

• Your teeth have temporarily lost their protective layer. The tooth surface is normally covered by a thin protein film that comes from your saliva. That film is the first line of defence against colour molecules, and the whitening gel removes it for a while. Your saliva rebuilds it within a day or two, but during that time the surface is unprotected.
• The enamel surface is briefly more porous. The gel works by passing through microscopic channels in the enamel. Those channels stay open for a while after treatment. A cup of tea drunk in this period puts its colour deeper into the tooth instead of leaving it on the surface. Getting lost whiteness back is far harder than getting the first three days right.
• Cigarettes stain more strongly than anything else. Tar is much darker and stickier than the pigments in coffee and tea. Smoking in the first days after whitening can undo in a few days a result that should have lasted for months. Even if you cannot give up, try to stop for the first three days.
• Drinking water genuinely works. Water after something coloured shortens the time the pigment sits on your teeth, and pigment that does not sit cannot take hold. This is the easiest and most effective thing you can do during the day.
• Regular cleaning makes the result last. The plaque layer that builds up on your teeth holds colour the way a sponge holds water. On teeth that are brushed and flossed daily, the shade comes back much more slowly. A professional clean every six months lifts the staining that has collected on the surface.

In Short

• First 72 hours: white diet, no cigarettes.
• First 3 weeks: keep coloured food and drink to a minimum, and follow with water when you do have some.
• White patches and the shade settling after the first days are normal and sort themselves out.
• Short jolts of sensitivity are expected. Call us if they last more than three days.
• Fillings and crowns do not whiten. They can be replaced to match the new shade.

How long whitening lasts varies from person to person depending on diet, smoking and oral hygiene, and no exact period can be promised in advance.

You can find our other aftercare guides on the Patient Guides page. If you have bonding on your front teeth, it is worth reading After Cosmetic Bonding as well. There is more about the procedure itself on our teeth whitening page. You can book through online appointment, and you can reach us on +90 212 823 79 72 with any question at all.