How Do You Whiten Teeth?

So your teeth are not as bright or as white as you want them to be.  You have plenty of options from toothpastes and drugstore products to light activated dental office treatments.  Each one of these penetrate different layers of the actual teeth and have a different price tag. The options that include products from your dentist or treatments in the dentist office are going to be stronger and result in more noticeably white teeth.

When you choose chapel hill teeth whitening, no matter what you choose, the product will work in one of two ways: bleaching or abrasion.

Bleaching your teeth is a way to remove stains deep below the surface of your tooth and superficial stains. With the stain removal, your natural tooth color will change and lighten. Bleaching results in teeth five to seven shades lighter than where you started. Most in office and at home treatments rely on bleaching as the catalyst to changing the color of your smile. Depending on the quality of the bleach, the concentration varies from 10-22% with the active ingredient of carbamide peroxide or hydrogen peroxide. Depending on the strength of the bleach, the quality of the active ingredient, the method of application and the level of engagement of your dentist, your bleaching procedure can vary greatly in price.

If you choose to go with a more modern and professional procedure in your dentist’s office, you may opt for a light-activated or chairside bleaching session which can cost you about $500 or more. The results will be dramatic and instantaneous with measurable results from before and after your session. Depending on your lifestyle and how often you eat and drink foods that stain, your teeth will start to discolor again after a year or more. If you want to see the whiter smile you were used to seeing after your first chairside bleaching, you will have to pay for the procedure again.

Another option you can talk to your dentist about is a custom mouth tray that your dentist takes an impression to create. Then you can wear that mouthpiece at home with a bleaching gel to penetrate your tooth and its surface. Depending on the strength of the bleaching gel, you will wear your mouthpiece with the gel for anywhere from a few hours at a time to overnight for two weeks. When your usual foods and drinks start to stain your teeth again, a few nights of wearing the mouthpiece with the gel should get your teeth back to the lighter, brighter shade you. A custom mouthpiece created by your dentist for in-home bleaching costs around $300, and you typically wear it several hours a day or overnight for two weeks. When you notice new staining, you just wear the mouthpiece again for a night or two to take the stains off.

Similar options are available from drug stores, but instead of a custom fit mouthpiece, the tray is moldable to your mouth after boiling in hot water and biting down to fit your teeth. The concentration of the bleach is not as strong as the bleach gel available through your dentist. Other means of application of bleach gel are strips or brushes; all of these easy to purchase options usually cost between $10 to $45.

Abrasion is the non-bleach alternative to remove most external or surface stains on your teeth. Abrasion relies physical scrubbing similar to the way a polishing cleanser works on your bathtub. Or the abrasion can use a chemical action to break up the stains on the surface and remove them. You are already familiar with the mild abrasion of your toothpaste and how effective this can be to help your teeth between dental appointments. The major difference between regular toothpaste and whitening toothpastes is that there is an additional chemical or polishing agent to remove stains.

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