Users’ and Operators’ Experience for in-Office Ionic Whitening Technology

Objectives: To evaluate users’ and operators’ experience for in-office ionic dental whitening procedure.
Methods: Upon IRB approval, 50 eligible patients (Av. 29.4yrs) were recruited for this qualitative, monadic clinical study. All patients were evaluated by the calibrated examiner of their oral soft and hard tissues at baseline, immediately after the procedure, and 2-weeks after the procedure. In-office whitening procedure (Optic White® Professional, Colgate®) applied per manufacturer’s instructions. Subjects and operators completed a questionnaire to assess experiences at the end of the Baseline and recall visits. Two-way ANOVA was used to detect the differences between the groups for each objective. Tukey’s HSD test was utilized to identify the differences. Statistical significance was found at p<0.05.
Results: Recall rate:94%. Patients’ office experience and outcome satisfaction reported 98% “Liked it” and 100% “Satisfied”. Comparing sensitivity to prior experience, 54% experienced less, 8% similar, 4% more, 37% didn’t have prior experience.

The following questions were asked to assess the participants’ level of agreement describing their experience with the Professional in-office Whitening system: 98%: Making whitening easier. 96% not messy to use. 88% comfortable while using the system. 86% no tooth sensitivity. 80% no gingival irritation. 92% would get the treatment again. There were no statistically significant differences between the responses obtained from the baseline and the recall sessions for all categories.

100% operators responded “strongly agree” to the same questions. For the benefits of the product: “Less sensitivity in general”, “Patient comfort compared to the other systems”, “No light”, “Significantly less chair time”, “Using the same trays for the at-home combination treatment”, “Elimination of the custom trays”. There were no statistically significant differences between the responses obtained from the baseline and the recall sessions for all categories.
Conclusions: Within the limitation of this clinical study, both patients and dental professionals found Colgate Optic White Professional In-Office Dental Whitening system satisfactory, and they also stated they would likely seek treatment again. Both parties’ responses were overwhelmingly positive.