It's the most wonderful time of the year where we celebrate cherished traditions, reunite with family and beloved friends, eat our most favorite (often sugary) foods, where we shop 'til we drop, stay up late wrapping presents and baking cookies, and give gifts to those we love. Could there be a better time to look and feel your best? Opalescence is here to help! Here are our top ten reasons to whiten your smile this holiday season:

The importance of making a quality impression cannot be understated, as the caliber of an indirect restoration depends on the precision of the impression on which it is based. Thermo Clone™ VPS impression material , Ultradent’s newest restorative product to come to market, is an exciting new advancement in prosthodontics and restorative dentistry. Thermo Clone material makes it easier to take accurate impressions, which I believe is the most important step in the indirect restoration process.

Over the last 20 years, dentistry has changed quite a bit. It used to be that “because it’s a temporary, quality and esthetics didn’t matter.” Now, it’s more like “just because it’s a temporary, doesn’t mean quality and esthetics don’t matter.” Additionally, more clinicians are realizing the negative effect bad temporaries have on their business. If any of the following problems sound a little too familiar to you, it’s time to consider upgrading your temporary material.

Everyone deserves a confident, healthy, beautiful smile, and yet many of the solutions to dental esthetic abnormalities can cost patients thousands of dollars. Determined to find a more economical solution to this universal problem, Dr. Sigal Jacobson created the Uveneer™ direct composite template system which allows dentists to give their patients the gorgeous smile they desire at a fraction of the price.

Carol Jent, RDH October is National Dental Hygiene Month, so we wanted to celebrate Carol Jent, Ultradent's Clinical RDH. We recently sat down with Carol to talk about her favorite hygiene products. "The first Ultradent sealant product I used from the company, before I ever even worked here, was UltraSeal XT® plus sealant. The office where I was working at the time had used another sealant product that I didn't like at all—it seemed it was always failing and we were constantly having to redo sealant. "At a trade show we learned about UltraSeal XT plus sealant and decided to give it a try and track the success rate. We were amazed! We weren't having to redo any of our sealants and if we did, it was rare."

"Fluoride treatments—from how we administer them; to their effectiveness; to how they taste, look, and even feel—have come a long way," says Carol Jent, Ultradent's in-house clinical registered dental hygienist. But she believes we've finally hit a sweet spot with Enamelast fluoride varnish—a varnish that tastes great, is easy to apply, and exhibits excellent retention to the teeth. (She says she's seen Enamelast fluoride varnish stay on the teeth for up to 72 hours!) Enamelast varnish also looks great and appears natural on the teeth. Best of all, this fluoride varnish displays remarkably high fluoride uptake rates, which, she believes, is the most important function of a fluoride treatment or varnish.

We'd all like to have bright, sparkling smiles but unfortunately for most people, achieving the white shade they'd like might take a bit of effort. Additionally, teeth stain in a variety of colors depending on the cause of the stain, genetics, and the vitality of the tooth. Teeth color can range anywhere from light yellow, to brown, to gray, to blue-tinted, and even mottled or splotchy. Here's a quick guide to picking the Opalescence® Tooth Whitening System that's right for you.

Whether you've just finished whitening your teeth or you'd like to try a whitening toothpaste before taking on a formal whitening regimen, Opalescence Whitening Toothpaste will do the trick. Unlike most toothpastes that you buy at the grocery or drug store, Opalescence Whitening Toothpaste is doctor-formulated to be the highest-quality professional-grade toothpaste on the market. When Opalescence introduced this toothpaste, it was only available exclusively through your dentist's office. But the demand for easier access to purchase it has grown exponentially over the years, and we listened. Last month, Opalescence launched its first ever online toothpaste store, where patients can purchase Opalescence Whitening Toothpaste in its Original Formula as well as its Sensitivity Relief Formula with just the click of a mouse! Now, if you haven't had a chance to try it, here are a few reasons you just may need to check it out for yourself:

We know what you're looking for in a bonding agent. 1. You want a product you can depend on. If your restoration fails, it affects more than just your patient's teeth. Emergency appointments are costly and inconvenient. Peak Universal Bond adhesive is formulated with chlorhexidine (0.2%), which may ensure long-term bond strength, so you can create restorations you can rely on. 1

This past March, Ultradent introduced MTAFlow™ (Mineral Trioxide Aggregate) repair cement, made especially for pulpotomies, pulp capping, root-end filling, apexification, perforation repair, and root resorption. MTA endodontic repair cements, including MTAFlow repair cement, are used in numerous endodontic procedures to form a layer of hydroxyapatite after the clinician expresses the product into the canal. Dr. Carlos Ramos, an endodontist, says, "One of the truly beneficial advancements in dentistry has been the introduction of mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) repair cements into endodontic treatment. The development of bioceramic-based materials has greatly improved pulp cappings, pulpotomies, the treatment of open apices, apicoectomies (retrograde fillings), and accidental perforation and resorption repairs."