We all want to look great, a brighter, beautiful smile makes such a difference to our confidence, to our energy to our life. Even thought the best way to whiten your teeth are in a dental clinic, where you can be monitored and advised by an expert, however there are few ways of whitening your teeth at home, although we don’t agree with all of them.
- Strips
Whitening strips have become very popular nowadays. You can buy them everywhere, even over the counter. My problem with these kind of strips is that they have a glue that will stick to the teeth. They are quite efficient, but the surface of teeth is not entirely flat. They have some curvatures and the patient never knows how to apply the strips in between their teeth and then when the patient smiles they tend to have yellow staines in between the teeth. - The LED light generic tray.
I’ve never used this system. The issue with it is that because the tray is generic, it is often too large hence the saliva goes inside the tray and washes off all the whitening gel that you have applied. So ultimately leaving minimal to no results at the end of the treatment. - Whitening toothpaste.
Don’t get too excited about them. I usually recommend my patients whitening toothpaste to maintain the white color they obtain in the dental office. Whitening toothpaste has too low of a concentration of whitening substance and they are not long enough in contact with your teeth to be able to whiten them. (Some of my favourite whitening toothpastes are: Crest White, Opalescence Whitening Toothpaste, Sensodyne Whitening) - Charcoal powder or sodium bicarbonate.
I don’t agree with them at all. I highly recommend you don’t do this at home. They are very abrasive and they can scratch the enamel surface. Especially if you try to have whiter teeth within 24h and you are too aggressive with the toothbrush trying to whiten them as fast as possible, leading to other dental problems. - Custom made trays that are made in the dental office by your dentist.
These trays have very small gaps between the teeth and the tray where you insert the whitening gel. There are two types of gels:
- hydrogen peroxide is used for a couple of hours during the day,
- carbamide peroxide is used during the night.
The gels are prescribed by your dentist hence it is very safe to use.
No matter what kind of teeth whitening you decide to go for, please first consult with your dentist as these procedures are not suitable for every person or situation. For example tetracycline coloration which means that either you’ve had administered tetracycline under the age of 12 years old or the mother had tetracycline while pregnant and then the child’s teeth are coloured.
Also, fluorosis stains, which happen if while you were young there was a higher concentration of Fluor in water or in alimentation or too many Fluor medication.
Additionally, there are situations when the dentin (the layer underneath the enamel) is too yellow or the enamel is too thin. So no matter how much we are trying to whiten the teeth, they cannot be whitened.
I hope I have helped you in your journey in getting a whiter and brighter smile. If you are interested in our Philips ZOOM teeth whitening procedure call us for a FREE consultation today.
