HOME TEETH WHITENING

We will mention this one time just to let the secret out — currently it is possible (in nearly all situations) to obtain “dental office” quality teeth whitening, in the convenience of your own home. Teeth whitening at home have cut into the business of teeth whitening systems used by dentists, playing the huge advertising budgets for these systems against the comfort of teeth whitening in your own home.

Teeth whitening were quite a complicated process, until a few years ago. Every patient had to have custom-fitted mouthpieces, so home teeth whitening was off the table for most people.

Basically, you will find that there are three ways to perform home teeth whitening.

The first option is brush-on whitening.

With this option, you just brush the formula on and allow it to dry on your teeth.  You leave it on overnight.  This is a good concept – in principle. Its not complicated, right?

But brush-on teeth whitening is just a shortcut for people who don’t want to spend the time necessary to get it right the first time around.

There are two main problems associated with brush-on teeth whitening:

– It’s effectiveness depends on the teeth whitening formula drying on your teeth. Hypothetically this is fine, but what if the teeth whitening formula gets wet (i.e. saliva and your tongue could easily cause the formula to be removed)? What do you imagine happens when a portion of the teeth whitening formula comes off? You know – the result is uneven whitening. It comes out in patches.

– As far as I can see, the second disadvantage of brush-on teeth whitening is the ingredients. The leading brush-on whitener lists alcohol as its first ingredient. Your breath smells foul after alcohol! Additionally, many brush-on teeth whitening substances include glycerin, which basically takes away the moisture from your teeth enamel, and it is the main reason for most of the teeth whitening sensitivity.

The second option is – strips which are stuck on the teeth

Teeth whitening strips are the second most common type of teeth whitening done at home. The main attraction of home teeth whitening is that the strips are very simple to use, easy to apply and require no preparation. Shortcuts are loved by everyone, correct? The problem is that it is the kind of teeth whitening that you get! Allow me to explain…

Strips that you place on your teeth typically are made up of a top strip and a bottom strip that are put next to the outside area of your teeth. Ponder this for a minute — are your teeth rounded? Obviously they are not, as they have ridges and grooves between each tooth. Well, picture yourself painting a fence, and you only paint the outside surface of the boards, without bothering to do the grooves in between them. That fence would look quite funny, would it not? On the surface is nice new paint, but the spaces between the boards are dull and discolored and still show the old paint. If you do not pay much attention, the same thing can happen to your teeth while using
teeth whitening strips. As your teeth become whiter, your dingy cracks become more  noticeable. You might end up with teeth that look like they have small gaps between them.  Definitely not what you wanted!

…to be continued…