White, whiter, whitest

I live in a very white little house and that makes me incredibly happy every day. I prefer to roll over the walls with a roller every year to keep it as white as possible. When I go to the office, I can repeat this little tune because everything there is really whiter than white. You make me very happy with it. There is still one wish left and that is super white teeth. I'm not averse to a sweet or a glass of red, but that has left some marks over the past years. I just have yellow teeth and have tried almost every whitening toothpaste, but they really don't get whiter. So when I was asked to have my teeth whitened, I naturally said yes out loud with every little tooth in my mouth.

Our sales director Daniëlle was also very eager to take on the challenge, but like me, she found it quite exciting. Well, they are your teeth, right? So better together than alone, because then at least I would have a fellow sufferer with whom I would sit toothless or with dentures in the editorial office if it went wrong. Before it started, our teeth were almost falling out of our mouths because we walked into WIT Amsterdam chattering with fear. Fortunately, it was all fine, as we were welcomed by two incredibly nice girls who reassured us more than enough.

Okay, the procedure. You lie down in the dentist's chair and first get a check-up. Normally, I absolutely hate dental check-ups, but I was helped by Diane, who had such enormous Bambi eyelashes that I could only stare at them instead of thinking about the check-up. She checks if you have any inflamed gums, if there are any cavities, or if she sees any other weird things. And yay, I passed the check-up and was allowed to proceed to the whitening round. Based on the VITA shade guide, it is checked what color your teeth are at the moment. Then she can give an indication of what color your teeth can become. Of course, she can't promise anything, as it depends on dental health and other factors. You understand, Daniëlle and I were going for the Gerard Joling effect.

After the check-up and color determination, a cheek retractor is placed in your mouth, the gums are covered with a serum, and the lips with a cream so they don't dry out during the treatment. Then you get the whitening gel applied to your teeth. This is checked every quarter of an hour and reapplied. You sit there for a quarter of an hour with an LED lamp in your mouth and a protective glasses on your head (read: not sexy), but in the meantime, you watch an episode of Friends or Sex and the City. This process is repeated four times in total, so you are done within an hour. After that hour, you have watched about three episodes of Friends, you start drooling quite a bit because of the cheek retractor, but you are mainly very curious if you still have teeth in your mouth and what color they have become.

Then you get the instruction to rinse the gel off your teeth. I rinsed about twenty times because I hoped that would enhance the result even more. Then comes the terrifying moment when you give the mirror a smile and see the result. SO HAPPY! Diane showed me with the color chart what I had achieved (about 7 shades lighter!). After that, I literally walked past every mirror without looking in it. Daniëlle also had an extremely good result and literally got the Gerard Joling smile. I a little less, but hey, Gwyneth Paltrow's teeth are also nice.

Daniëlle and I didn't have any trouble. It was really painless – okay, maybe the cheek retractor caused a cramping feeling – and only the first 24 hours after the treatment were a bit harder to get through. Because your enamel is open then, you are only allowed to eat white food. Yogurt, white pasta, and white bread, for example. And since you are afraid your teeth will quickly turn yellow again, you actually dare not eat anything and literally live on water and bread. You don't have to, but you do. Everything for the best and most beautiful result. After 24 hours, you can let that go, because then the result remains the same and you can live carefree again.

To maintain the result, you choose the PrevDent toothpaste or mouthwash. With the mouthwash, you rinse three times a week and with the toothpaste, you keep brushing. This maintains the color. That toothpaste flew through with me in the first days since I desperately wanted to keep my teeth white and my boyfriend thought he would also get whiter teeth by brushing.

You understand that I am typing this piece with a huge smile. Where I used to always stand with my mouth closed in every photo to hide those yellow teeth, I now smile broadly to let every tooth shine in the photo, even the molars. Really, they are incredibly white. Daniëlle and I are now practicing a lot on selfies. We used to always skip those because we looked really silly, but now we have a natural flash when we open our mouths and those selfies are much more fun. You can look forward to that.

A professional treatment at WHITE costs €349. It takes an hour and you walk out with white teeth.