Wish Dental Teeth Whitening – Review

Last Updated on 17 December 2024 by Colette

This post features product gifted for review

Whilst I do have a fairly healthy mouth with pretty straight teeth and minimal fillings (I’ve literally got two – both caused by pregnancy) – I’ve never loved my teeth. I mean I guess they are inoffensive enough but I’ve got two teeth which are slightly turned out that really bug me in photographs. In reality, I know it’s quite minor and that you’ve probably never noticed! It’s not something I’d ever really bother to fix, however what I’d really wanted to do for quite a while was have my teeth whitened.

I don’t drink traditionally staining things like red wine or coffee and I don’t smoke but I do drink plenty of Diet Coke. So, whilst my teeth could certainly have looked a lot worse, I knew they could look better too. You all know I love a bright lip – and wearing bright lipstick can certainly emphasis any discolouration in your teeth (it can also detract from it if you get the perfect shade but . . . ) and frankly, having yellowing teeth is just really aging. Something I’m super conscious of as I’m turning 40 this year!

I’ve tried various whitening toothpastes over the year with limited success but I knew that I wanted to take things a bit further and have a professional whitening treatment at the dentist.

Wish Dental, Poynton

Wish Dental, owned and run by Tom Owen and Lasse Peterson, is situated on the main high street in the gorgeous little Cheshire village of Poynton. This isn’t somewhere I’d been before but it’s definitely somewhere I will go back. There are some lovely independent shops to browse pre / post dental treatment making the drive to get there even more worthwhile. Wish Dental, whilst primarily a dental practice offering high end private dental care, also offer a range of procedures including cosmetic dentistry and aesthetic procedures such as fillers.

When I arrived for my first appointment at Wish Dental, I was greeted warmly at reception and asked to fill in a form with various personal details as you’d expect, before going upstairs to meet Lucinda who would be carrying out my treatment.

I’m not someone who is especially nervous about the dentist – I have little reason to be after minimal invasive treatment over the years – however Lucinda absolutely put me at ease, chatting about the work we were going to do together and general small talk.

Invisalign / 3D scans

The first thing we did was a 3D scan of my teeth to show how they could look before and after an Invisalign treatment – this was a completely painless experience which just involved having a probe moved around my mouth taking an insane number of images and then putting them all together on the screen to create an onscreen representation of my mouth and a projection of how it could look after Invisalign treatment.

The difference was fairly minimal and focused very much on those two teeth I mentioned at the start of the post! Whilst I’d love to have perfectly straight teeth, I don’t think the impact for me would be worth discomfort or investment but it was fascinating to see the difference that could be made! (You can see a clip of the projection over on my instagram stories)

Boutique Teeth Whitening

So, as I’ve mentioned, the main reason for my visit to Wish Dental was to have my teeth whitened – and I was super excited to get started! Lucinda gave me teeth a thorough check over to make sure they were in a fit state to have the treatment first of all and then we set about making the trays!

Custom fit, teeth whitening trays

The whitening treatment involves taking imprints of your teeth to make custom fitted trays which you wear on a daily basis for roughly a fortnight depending on the results you are aiming for and how your teeth respond to treatment. You need to wear them for around four hours or over night – so if you’re not entirely comfortable sleeping with them, popping them in after your tea and taking them out again at bedtime is ideal but I was quite happy to sleep in my whitening trays.

Having the impressions of my teeth taken was probably my least favourite bit of the whole process – it involved biting down on dental putty and then leaving it to set in your mouth for a few minutes. Apparently this is very similar to if you’d had braces as a child (which I obviously haven’t). It wasn’t painful, just a bit unpleasant – particularly when it came to removing the clay which had suctioned itself to my teeth!

Starting the tooth whitening process

I returned to Wish Dental a few weeks later to check the fit of my trays and learn about how to use the Boutique whitening system at home. I’d been a little nervous about how the trays might fit but they slip in so easily and are surprisingly comfortable – you very quickly get used to wearing them.

The Boutique whitening system consists of your custom fit trays, which come in a handy little storage case and a tin of four syringes of whitening treatment. Lucinda made sure that I was able to put my trays in and take them out again comfortably, talked me through the routine of how much product to use and what do the following morning when I removed the trays (gently clean my teeth with Sensodyne tooth paste and give my trays a rinse and a gentle brush to remove any excess product) and then we made an appointment to check in on my progress in 2 weeks time.

The trays are obviously moulded to fit your teeth perfectly – but inside each “tooth” section there is a little recess and this is where you dot the whitening product. It’s a little fiddly and you have to be careful not to use too much – as a) you don’t want to be wasting precious product and b) you don’t want it on your gums as you could end up a bit sore – if you do find you have product escaping the trays, you just need to wipe that off. Once you’ve given your teeth a good clean, dried them and dotted the whitening product into your trays you just fit them to your teeth and go about your business – for me that meant going to sleep! Maximum treatment time, minimum hassle.

Can you sleep with your Boutique whitening trays in?

I had worried that I might struggle to sleep initially. A couple of people on instagram had told me that the trays might take a bit of getting used to but, bar being a bit lispy (which doesn’t matter when you’re going to sleep anyway) and swallowing feel a bit strange for a minute or two, I really didn’t have a problem with wearing the trays over night at all.

In the morning, you simply take the trays off – I recommend doing this in the bathroom over the sink as you will want to spit out any excess product and then gently brush your teeth and rinse out your trays.

Will my teeth whitening treatment hurt?

It is quite likely that you will experience some sensitivity during treatment. Despite using the recommended Sensodyne toothpaste, on the first day or two I was really quite aware of my teeth – they just felt a bit strange and almost fragile (which of course they weren’t) and I was really super sensitive to the cold weather – breathing in cold air through my mouth was horrible so I kept my face tucked up in a scarf. This sensation disappeared after a day or two.

On the second night of using my trays I felt a bit of a burning sensation when I first put them in, it was really quite uncomfortable and I thought I’d have to take them out – but it passed quickly and I never felt it again throughout the treatment.

Lucinda had warned me that there might be a little discomfort or sensitivity but that if it felt too much I should just have a couple of days break before resuming treatment.

How long does it take for tooth whitening to work?

I found myself waking up every morning and carefully inspecting my teeth for signs of improvements! I started to notice a difference after about four days and Dave commented that he could see the difference after a week. I showed Mum and she said she couldn’t tell, which I guess meant that at least they still looked natural!

I had been worried about having some sort of teeth dysmorphia and “going too far” – so after the first two tubes, I stopped and waited for my next appointment with Lucinda. She took before and after photos and checked my teeth. We talked about whether I’d had any issues and if I was happy with the progress we had made. Lucinda explained the the very edges of the teeth, near the gums, can be harder to whiten but we were both really happy with the difference the whitening treatment had made. She suggested I do another weeks’ treatment, using up another tube of product and then save the final tube for “top ups” every few months (it will last up to a year in the fridge).

How much does teeth whitening cost?

Tooth whitening at Wish Dental costs just shy of £300 – once the initial treatment cycle is complete you can purchase additional bleaching product to maintain your shiny white new smile.

Can I top up my teeth whitening at a later date?

Now that I have my custom made trays, unless I have any dental work done which alters my teeth in anyway, I can continue to top up the whitening treatment as I wish by buying additional whitening product from the team at Wish Dental or from my local dentists.

I finished my treatment in December and my teeth have settled to a really natural, whiter than before shade which I’m really happy with – my lipstick choices are no longer made based on whether it makes my teeth look more yellow or not!

How long does Boutique Whitening last?

Of course how long your teeth whitening treatment lasts will depend very much on your lifestyle – if you smoke, drink coffee or red wine or just don’t clean your teeth very well then your results won’t last as long. It’s about a year since I last treated my teeth and I think they are ready for a top up now – they are still nowhere near the colour they were when we originally started but I think they would benefit from a lift so I’ve booked in a for a quick check up at Wish before I buy some more gel to treat my teeth. (Updated 23.03.21)

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