Teeth Whiteningin Beverly Hills
Dr. Kiyan Mehdizadeh has practised since 2012 in a single Beverly Hills location. Whitening here begins with an examination, because the shade you can reach depends on what is causing the colour in the first place. Whitening starts at $800.
- A response within one business day. Usually much sooner.
- A real cost estimate not a range designed to get you in the door.
- No obligation. Many patients take months to decide. That is normal.
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How whitening works
Whitening is a chemical reaction that happens inside the tooth. That one fact explains most of what follows: why some discolouration lifts in an hour and some never lifts at all, and why how the gel is held against the tooth matters more than the number printed on the syringe.
The colour you see is not on the tooth. It comes from chromophores, molecules with light-absorbing bonds, held within the enamel and, more to the point, in the dentine underneath it. Polishing removes the film sitting on the outside. It cannot reach the molecules actually producing the colour, which is why a hygiene visit leaves teeth brighter without leaving them lighter.
Peroxide does reach them. Hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide diffuse through enamel and decompose into free radicals, chiefly perhydroxyl radicals, and those break the double bonds inside a chromophore. A broken chromophore absorbs light differently, and the tooth reads lighter. Nothing is added to the tooth and nothing is scraped off it.
The complication is that your own saliva works against the reaction the whole time it is running. Saliva, and the fluid seeping from the gum margin, carry glutathione peroxidase, an enzyme whose job is to destroy peroxide. KöR puts the rate at roughly 29 milligrams destroyed per minute against about 6.5 milligrams of peroxide in a conventional tray. The arithmetic is unforgiving: an ordinary tray is chemically spent in twenty to thirty minutes however much longer you leave it in.
So the variable that decides your result is not concentration but contact — how long active gel stays against the tooth before saliva ends it. A chairside gel under full isolation buys a short supervised burst. A tray sealed at its margins buys hours. That distinction is what separates the systems below, and it is why a stain that never moved with strips from a pharmacy can move with a properly sealed tray.
What is actually making your teeth dark
This is the question the examination answers, and your answer predicts the result far better than any product does.
Extrinsic staining is pigment picked up from coffee, tea, red wine, dark sauces and tobacco, sitting on and just inside the outer enamel. It is the most common reason people whiten and the most reliable to shift.
Age-related yellowing is not stain at all. Enamel thins over decades while the dentine beneath it darkens, so you are seeing more dentine through less enamel. It responds well but gradually, and it is why two people with identical habits thirty years apart do not look the same.
Tetracycline banding comes from an antibiotic taken while the teeth were still forming, which bound into the dentine and left grey, blue or brown horizontal bands. The colour is structural rather than superficial. It responds slowly and partially, over weeks rather than an appointment, and it is the specific problem sealed-tray deep bleaching was designed around.
Fluorosis and white spots behave differently again. Whitening lightens the background around a white patch faster than it lightens the patch itself, so mottling often looks more obvious in the first days before it evens out. Where it does not even out, resin infiltration or microabrasion is the answer rather than more gel.
A single dark tooth is usually one whose nerve has died or been root treated, stained from the inside by blood breakdown products. No surface gel reaches it. Treating it as a colour problem wastes months, because a crack or a failing restoration presents exactly the same way and needs finding first.
Crowns, veneers and bonding do not change at all. There are no chromophores in them to break and no enamel to diffuse through. That has a practical consequence which catches people out, and it is the first item further down.
What we use, and why
Four routes. Which one suits you comes out of the section above, not out of a price list.
In-office whitening
One appointment. Gums and lips are isolated and gel is applied in timed cycles, rinsed between them. We use two systems. Pola Office+ is 37.5% hydrogen peroxide at neutral pH, run as three eight-minute cycles with an optional fourth, which keeps total chair time under half an hour. Opalescence Boost is 40%, chemically activated so no lamp is involved, applied as two or three twenty-minute cycles and mixed at the chair immediately before use. Boost carries potassium nitrate and fluoride in the gel itself, which is a decision about sensitivity rather than a marketing line.
Take-home custom trays
Impressions are taken and thin trays made to your teeth, so gel sits on enamel and stays off gum tissue. We dispense Opalescence PF, a carbamide peroxide gel available from 10% up to 35%. The trade is straightforward: lower concentration means longer wear and less sensitivity, higher means shorter wear. Potassium nitrate and fluoride are in the gel at every strength. The trays remain yours, and that is what later turns a top-up into one night rather than a new course.
KöR deep bleaching
For discolouration ordinary whitening has not moved, tetracycline banding included. Two things are different, and both follow from the saliva problem above. The trays are sealed at their margins to keep saliva and sulcular fluid out, which extends active whitening from twenty or thirty minutes to something in the order of six to ten hours per wear. And the gel is kept refrigerated from manufacture through to delivery, so it still yields free radicals rather than having quietly decomposed to oxygen and water on a shelf. In-office sessions are combined with home wear across several weeks.
Internal whitening for a single dark tooth
Where a tooth has darkened from within after root canal treatment, the material is sealed inside the pulp chamber and left to work between visits, whitening the dentine outward — the opposite direction to everything above. Usually one to three visits, quoted separately, and assessed before it is booked.
What whitening will not do
Worth reading before you book rather than after. None of it is a reason to avoid whitening; it is the difference between being pleased with the result and being surprised by it.
It will not change a veneer, crown, bridge or filling. Ceramic and composite stay the shade they were made. If your restorations were matched to teeth that were darker then, they will look darker still once the teeth around them lighten, and the only way to match them again is to replace them. This is why whitening comes before new ceramic and never after: get the natural teeth where you want them, then build to that shade.
It will not hold indefinitely. Colour relapses, and the pace is set by coffee, tea, red wine, dark sauces and smoking far more than by which system was used. Keeping your trays is what makes maintenance trivial instead of expensive.
It will not substitute for a diagnosis. A tooth that is dark because it is cracked, because a restoration is failing, or because the nerve is dying will not respond, and the months spent whitening it are months the real problem had to get worse.
It is not started over untreated disease. Decay, leaking or cracked fillings, exposed root surfaces and inflamed gums are dealt with first. Gel reaching any of those is what turns ordinary sensitivity into real pain, and the colour comes out patchy wherever the surface is not sound.
Sensitivity, and what actually helps
Sensitivity during and shortly after whitening is common, and it is worth understanding because most of what is written about it is wrong in a particular way. Dentine is not solid. It is packed with microscopic tubules running from the outer surface toward the nerve, each holding fluid. Peroxide passing through increases the movement of that fluid, and rapid fluid movement is what the nerve registers as a short, sharp zing. Nothing is being eroded while it happens.
Because the effect is tied to the gel being active, it fades once a session ends and the tubules settle, for most people within a day or two. Sensitivity that does not settle is a reason to be seen rather than a reason to push on.
What helps is more specific than reaching for a sensitive toothpaste. Potassium nitrate, already in the gels above, calms the nerve response, and fluoride works at the tubule openings. Past that we lower the concentration, shorten the wear time, put more days between sessions, or run desensitising gel in the trays you already have. Tell us at the examination if your teeth are already sensitive: it changes which route we choose, not just what we hand you on the way out.
What a Whitening Course Looks Like
Examination and Shade Record
Decay, leaking or cracked fillings, exposed root surfaces and gum inflammation are found and treated before any gel is used. Your starting shade is recorded against a guide, so at the end the change is measured rather than remembered.
Deciding the Route
Which of the four, and at what concentration. The kind of discolouration decides most of it; your sensitivity history decides the rest. A patient with tetracycline banding and a patient with fifteen years of coffee do not get the same plan.
Treatment
Chairside cycles here, or trays worn at home to a written schedule, or KöR's combination of both over several weeks. You leave with a number to call if the teeth get sensitive, and instructions on what to do before you call it.
Review, and What Holds It
The shade is recorded again and compared against the start. If you have trays you keep them, with written guidance on how and how often to top up. The relapse is driven by what you drink and whether you smoke, so that conversation happens here rather than being skipped.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does teeth whitening cost in Beverly Hills?+
Whitening at Dr. Kiyan Mehdizadeh's Beverly Hills practice starts at $800. Where a course lands above that depends on the route: a single in-office appointment, custom take-home trays, a multi-week deep bleaching protocol for staining that has not responded before, or internal whitening for one dark tooth. You are given a written estimate at the consultation, before anything is started. Financing is available through Proceed Finance, PatientFi, Happen Bank, Proceed Finance, PatientFi, Happen Bank, CareCredit, and Cherry.
How does teeth whitening actually work?+
Peroxide gel diffuses through enamel and decomposes into free radicals, mainly perhydroxyl radicals. Those break the double bonds inside the chromophore molecules that make a tooth look dark. A broken chromophore reflects light differently and the tooth reads lighter. Nothing is added to the tooth and nothing is polished off it, which is why a cleaning brightens a tooth without lightening it.
Why do whitening trays stop working after half an hour?+
Saliva and the fluid in the gum sulcus contain glutathione peroxidase, an enzyme that destroys peroxide on contact, at a rate of roughly 29 mg per minute against about 6.5 mg of peroxide in a conventional tray. The gel is chemically spent long before you take the tray out. Trays sealed at the margins keep saliva out and extend active whitening to roughly six to ten hours per wear, which is the whole reason deep bleaching protocols work on staining that ordinary trays never moved.
How much whiter will my teeth get?+
It depends on what is causing the colour, not on the concentration of the gel. Extrinsic staining from coffee, tea, red wine and tobacco lifts readily. Age-related yellowing, where enamel has thinned and the dentine underneath has darkened, lifts well but gradually. Tetracycline banding is structural and responds slowly and partially. Fluorosis and white spots lighten in the background but the spot itself often looks more obvious before it blends. Your starting shade is recorded at the examination so the change is measured rather than estimated.
Does whitening damage enamel?+
Whitening works by oxidising colour molecules held inside enamel, not by stripping or thinning it. The common side effect is sensitivity, and that is a fluid-movement effect: dentine is packed with microscopic tubules holding fluid, peroxide passing through increases the movement of that fluid, and the nerve registers rapid fluid movement as a short sharp zing. It is not erosion, and it is tied to the gel being active.
Does whitening make teeth sensitive, and what can be done about it?+
Sensitivity during and shortly after whitening is common and usually settles within a day or two. Potassium nitrate, which is in the take-home and in-office gels we use, calms the nerve response, and fluoride helps at the tubule openings. Beyond that we lower the concentration, shorten the wear time, put more days between sessions, or run desensitising gel in the trays you already have. Tell us at the examination if your teeth are already sensitive, because it changes which route we choose rather than only what we hand you afterwards.
Will whitening change the colour of my veneers, crowns or fillings?+
No. Whitening lightens natural tooth structure only. Porcelain veneers, crowns, bridges and composite bonding contain no chromophores to break and no enamel to diffuse through, so they stay the shade they were made. If your existing restorations were matched to darker teeth they will look darker once the teeth around them lighten, and matching them again means replacing them. This is why whitening is done before new ceramic is made, never after.
Is in-office or take-home whitening better?+
Neither is better; they trade off differently. In-office is one supervised appointment at high concentration for a short exposure, and the change is visible the same day. Take-home uses a lower concentration over longer wear, which is often easier on sensitive teeth, and it leaves you with trays you keep. Many patients do both, using the appointment to make the change and the trays to extend and hold it. Staining that has resisted both is what the multi-week sealed-tray protocol is for.
Can one dark tooth be whitened?+
Often, yes, but not with surface gel. A tooth that has darkened after root canal treatment is discoloured from the inside, where blood breakdown products have stained the dentine. Internal whitening seals the material inside the pulp chamber and whitens outward instead, usually over one to three visits. It is assessed before it is booked, because a crack, a failing restoration or a dying nerve can all present as one dark tooth, and those are diagnoses rather than colour problems.
How long do whitening results last, and what has to happen first?+
Colour relapses gradually, and how fast depends on coffee, tea, red wine, dark sauces and smoking far more than on which system was used. Keeping your trays turns a top-up into a single night rather than a new course. Before any of it, untreated decay, leaking or cracked fillings, exposed root surfaces and active gum inflammation are treated, because gel reaching those is what turns ordinary sensitivity into real pain and leaves the colour patchy wherever the surface is not sound.
Whitening here is planned and carried out by Dr. Kiyan Mehdizadeh, DMD, who has practised in the same Beverly Hills location since 2012. Shade assessment happens in the same building as the laboratory and the ceramist, which is what makes matching any future ceramic to a whitened shade a measurement rather than a guess.
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Tell Dr. Kiyan Mehdizadeh what you would like to change about the colour of your teeth. You will hear back within one business day, with a real estimate and no obligation.