Dr: Michael Miller is the president and co-founder of REALITY, an independent research and publishing organization dedicated to covering the ever-growing field of esthetic dentistry.

Lecturing internationally, Dr. Miller is a Fellow of the Academy of General Dentistry and a founding, accredited member and Fellow of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry.

He also holds memberships in the International Association of Dental Research, Academy of Dental Materials, and Academy of Operative Dentistry.

He is in private practice in Houston, Texas.

Michael Miller, DDS of Reality Magazine has spoken out about the future of whitening. When lecturing on research and evaluation of five star products at the Las Vegas Cosmetic Dentistry 2001 conference, February 8 and 9, 2001, Dr. Miller discussed his ratings of various bleaching material and techniques. During these evaluations he displayed a Lustredent syringe image while stating that Dr. Ogrin (consultant for Murphy Dental) had introduced a new at-home 30% carbamide peroxide treatment. Dr. Miller said, "I have to give him a lot of appreciation because a lot of us stick our heads in the sand and we don't look at different concepts when we should, and I'm the same way. We get real busy, and when I first thought of somebody doing home bleaching with a 30% carbamide peroxide I said, 'You're out of your mind. This'll never work, it'll blowout teeth - they'll be sensitive, it'll be this, it'll do that.' Well I can tell you, it doesn't do that."

Dr. Miller went on to explain, "And, what's very nice about this product is that you can have patients wear the tray twice a day for 20 minutes and you can go from a C3 to a C1 in one week - in one week, 20 minutes a day - driving to and from work. So this 30% carbamide, as long as they keep the wear time down to a minimum and you don't cover any of the gums...so you scallop the trays very nicely, I am firmly convinced that this is the way that bleaching is going to go."

Question: We're approaching 13 years of using home-whitening products with hydrogen peroxide derivatives. What do you see as the major advancements in this area and where do you see this product category going in the future?

Miller: …our main story in the April issue of REALITY NOW, is the introduction of 30 percent carbamide peroxide home bleaching materials. The specific product we covered was Lustredent [Murphy Dental]. Others have followed suit in this area. Den-Mat now has a version of Rembrandt at 30 percent. Discus Dental also has Day White, a 9.5 percent hydrogen peroxide system that converts to about 28 to 29 percent carbamide peroxide. I believe these higher-concentration systems are going to be the major trend in home bleaching.

The whole idea behind these higher-concentration formulas is to reduce wearing time. For instance, Lustredent is recommended for an application of 20 to 30 minutes once or twice a day. The idea is to put the tray in while you are in total downtime, when you can do nothing other than, say, sit in traffic.