Since everybody wants to be a celebrity these days and looking good has become important in obtaining a good job, teeth whitening has become a popular fad. In order to acquire whiter teeth, some people have turned to using bleaching products.
Bleaching is far cheaper than other methods of whitening and can be done at home with cheap over-the-counter products or even home-made treatments. Without whitening of some variety everyone’s teeth would discolour over time.
The worst items in common use that are responsible for teeth discolouration are cigarettes, coffee, tea and red wine. Brushing will remove some staining, but is not really completely effectual unless the tooth paste is particularly abrasive, which is not a good idea because that will eventually remove the enamel which does such a good job of defending our teeth from infection and cavities.
There are lots of different teeth whitening systems on the market and some have advantages over others. Some are very strong and should only be applied under supervision. In other cases the dentist will need to apply some sort of protective coating to your gums so that they are not damaged by the chemicals in the gel.
The bleaching agent is then applied to the teeth by means of a tray. You are in essence dipping your teeth into a bath of bleach which you carry about in your mouth. Therefore the tray has to fit your mouth, if it is going to be comfortable. There are two types of trays: the standard, one size fits all and the custom-made, which is moulded to fit your mouth by a dentist.
Sometimes these trays are used exclusively in the dental surgery and others are meant to be taken home for use there. The active component in the whitening gels is usually either carbamide peroxide or hydrogen peroxide. This kind of course of treatment typically takes three to four weeks.
There is also a whitening gel that you spread over your teeth before you go to bed and leave on all night while you sleep. This gel should not be used more than once a week, but the results are pretty good.
Another choice is so-called laser whitening. It is actually a misnomer because the strong light used to ‘activate’ the whitening gel is not a laser at all. It is only named that because it sounds more hi-tech than ‘strong light’. Hi-tech can be sold for more money than low-tech. In fact, many people are turning away from laser whitening, because it is really unnecessary to have to ‘activate’ the product with light. It is only intended to prevent people from using the gel at home.
This form of treatment is the fastest because the products used are more highly concentrated than those sold for home use. This is reasonable, because people could injure themselves at home with powerful products if they have not been trained to use them.
The results of a good professional teeth whitening procedure should last for about three years, whereas home treatments are on-going – you have to bleach every week in order to maintain the whiteness. However, all teeth whitening systems must eventually fail, unless you stop smoking or and drinking red wine, coffee and strong black tea.
