I have TMJ disorder and have noticed that my jaw hurts more when I am whitening my teeth. I recently read about the Tanda Pearl Ionic Teeth Whitening System. It touts to work in 5 minutes a day. I think that would really help my jaw pain. Have you seen this system? Is it legitimate?

Mary Grace

Dear Mary Grace,

I am sorry you have been having jaw pain. One thing I am wondering is whether you are doing your teeth whitening through your dentist? If so, did he make a custom-fitted bleaching tray for your procedure? If not, that is the very first thing I would talk to him or her about.

As for the Tanda Pearl System, I looked into this. Its main ingredient is a peroxide gel. That is a viable teeth whitening solution and the same basic ingredient you would get with any other whitening system. There are some differences to consider before making your decision.

The “Ionic” Technology

Something that niggles at me about this is that they provide zero information about their special technology. There does not seem to be anything special about it. If it did work, they’d make more money marketing it to dental offices, but they don’t do that. This makes me wonder if they don’t want it looked at too closely because it is only there for psychological reasons. I don’t like it when companies or even medical practitioners manipulate patients. They could leave that light out altogether and save their customers money.

The Whitening Period

They say it will whiten your teeth in five minutes use each day. Sure, that could happen. It could happen equally with another system as well. Essentially, the longer you wear the whitening gel, the faster your teeth will whiten. There is nothing magical about the amount of time. If your jaw aches, I would wear your current trays for less time until you have a chance to visit your dentist about your bleaching trays.

The Tanda Tray

I placed a picture above of the type of bleaching trays your dentist should have provided for you. Notice there is a separate tray for each arch of your teeth. The Tanda system is different. It uses a single tray for both arches of your teeth. You have to bite down on it in order to keep it in place. In my opinion, that will increase the pain you are experiencing in your jaw, not help it.

Another thing to consider is you bite down to “create” your trays with Tanda Pearl. This will not be a tight fit. That means that whitening gel will leak out, which weakens its effectiveness. Saliva will also leak in, which (again) weakens the gel.

Your safest option is to talk to your dentist about the pain you are feeling and see if you can get to the bottom of it.

This blog is brought to you by Duluth, GA Dentist Dr. David Marion.