Unless your patient has a Hollywood white smile, discussing the shade of your patients’ teeth can be a sensitive subject. Master the art of starting this conversation with a comfortable approach and you will not only attract patients, but also bring additional profit to your practice.

With that in mind, here are our top 5 tips to easily start the tooth whitening conversation with patients – no awkwardness in sight!

1. Offer All New Patients a Whitening Evaluation Form

Make the tooth whitening conversation part of your standard procedure! In addition to offering all new patients the standard registration forms, ensure all patients also fill in a whitening evaluation form. Tailor your form to include questions that will facilitate an engaging dialogue with your patient. For example, the following questions might form part of the evaluation form, and lead to a wider conversation about whitening:

• Are you happy with the colour of your teeth?
• If you could change anything about your teeth, what would you change?
• Have you used whitening products previously? Were you happy with the results?

2. Get to Know Your Patients

Taking the time to ask your patients questions – and taking the time to listen to what they have to say, goes a long way. Not only does casual and friendly conversation assist with patient retention, but it can also lead to a deeper conversation about teeth whitening.

Conversations which start with questions about plans for the rest of the day, the weekend or the holidays; could potentially lead patients to reveal upcoming events where teeth whitening would be the perfect confidence boost! Remember, most people want to feel confident about their smile, so talking about teeth whitening can often form part of natural patient conversation. 

3. Make Shade Taking Routine

A regular dental check-up is not only the best way to ensure that your patients’ teeth and gums are as healthy as possible, but also presents an opportunity to make shade taking routine – starting the whitening dialogue.

Present the check-up as an overall review, explaining that one of the pieces of information that you need to collect is the shade of your patients’ teeth.

Sharing this information with the patient, can often open the whitening conversation; leading into the solutions available for a whiter smile.

4. Educate Your Patients

Education is key. Patients should understand the difference between over the counter whitening and professional whitening dispensed from a dental practitioner. Furthermore, patients should also understand the importance of compliance; whitening isn’t instant and requires adherence to a tailored whitening regime to see results.

If your patients are new to whitening and seek an effective solution, why not start the whitening conversation by letting your patients know that professional whitening can be fuss free? Opalesence Go is a 6% hydrogen peroxide take-home teeth whitening system; with no impressions, models or lab time required.

In just six easy steps (below) your patients can apply the ready-made UltraFit tray which custom forms in the mouth using heat activated polymers, for optimal results and instant application.

1. Removal of the Ultrafit tray from the product packaging

2. Placement of Ultrafit tray in the mouth

3. Seating of the Ultrafit tray

4. Removal of outer tray, leaving inner tray in situ

5. Inner tray in correct position in mouth

6. Tray to be worn for 30-90 minutes