You can never have enough reasons to feel good about yourself; one of them is teeth whitening, which has never been cheaper. Teeth whitening is effective and one of the few dental procedures that doesn’t include drilling, removing of tissue or injections.
Teeth whitening is not as simple as you think. You have to decide how to whiten your teeth and this decision can easily go wrong. Here are some common mistakes people make in teeth whitening (Many dentists don’t want you to know these facts and for a good reason):
1. The biggest mistake is to believe that by spending more money on so-called power -or laser whitening in dentists chair the results are better.
Laser treatment costs a lot because you need to sit on chair at dentist even for an hour. Surgery time is expensive and dentist’s costs are high. These days you can even buy your own teeth whitening laser and it's a same method which is used by dentists.
The relapse rate is also alarmingly high. It should also tell something that the manufacturers of power whitening recommend home kit use after whitening to ”balance” the results. What they are not telling that home whitening does all the work and you’d get exactly the same results without the expensive power or laser phase dentist receiving. In home you can do everything peacefully - without any expensive charge.
2. Another expensive mistakes is to believe that all the home whitening kits are the same. They are not. You can buy a whitening set from the supermarket but the effectiveness of the gel is strictly limited. A proprietary kit may cost a tenth of a professional version, but you probably would have to buy more than ten kits in order to have the similar results – it would also take longer. In addition, many over-the-counter products have not been evaluated for safety with prolonged usage. The mouth trays from your dentist are custom moulded. This is not the case in shelf products that can cause gum irritation both from the tray itself and gel.
3. It is not sensible to whiten your teeth at beauty salon or at gym. They assure you that the procedure is safe so there’s no need to pay for professional prices. Well it is safe if you know what you are doing and if you know how to avoid or minimize side effects.
4. You shouldn’t expect whitening toothpastes to change the overall color of your teeth. These products are designed to remove surface stains and work well with that- but it is not likely that they change the color of the enamel.
5. Another mistake is not to plan how porcelain veneers, crowns and white fillings look after whitening. These restorations don’t whiten like your own teeth and you may have to change them after whitening since they look too dark compared to other teeth. This needs to be planned before the whitening process.
6. Another thing you tend to forget is that your lifestyle needs to be altered to minimize teeth darkening after whitening treatment. If you rely on quick laserwhitening in dentist receive then you need to cut off tea, coffee, red wine, all heavily colored food and drinks and quit smoking.
In home teeth whitening this is not so important since you can whiten your teeth again and again whenever you want – usually with no extra cost.
7. Remember to have enough time to get the desired results. Normally it takes two weeks to reach the wanted whiteness with whitening gel. This of course depends on person. The quickness of the change depends on how often you use the products as well. If you use it only every second day, it takes longer – but you will get there anywhere. That’s the other advantage of home teeth whitening – you can do it according to your lifestyle.
