Compare Three Teeth Whitening Methods There are many different reasons why our teeth no longer appears as white as it used to be. The main causes for external teeth discolorations are our living habits – regular cups of coffee, wine, acidic foods coupled with infrequent brushing and washing of our teeth. Fortunately, these extrinsic stains can be easily removed by most teeth bleaching products and dentist treatments in the market today.
1) Peroxide bleaching gel and teeth trays kits: A small amount of carbide peroxide or hydrogen peroxide based tooth bleaching gel is squeezed onto a pair of teeth trays which are then worn over your upper and lower sets of teeth in the mouth.
2) Laser tooth whitening: A safe medical laser is used to photo energize the bleaching gel in order to quicken the bleaching process. This laser can really speed up the time taken to satisfactorily whiten your teeth by several shades often within a single one hour session. Comparatively, the non laser bleaching kit above may take several weeks of daily bleaching to achieve the same whitening shades in your teeth. However, the cost of such dentist laser whitening procedures, such as Zoom, BriteSmile, Fabulous Smile etc will also cost around $500 upwards.
3) Tooth whitening strips: For example, the Crest Proeffects whitestrips series are very convenient products because you do not need to need around with teeth gels and mouth trays. Just stick the strips onto your front teeth like a sticker. The required amount of bleaching gel has already been adhered onto the whitening strips. Note that they only bleach and whitening the front of your teeth, the part exposed when you smile.
The above three types of treatments involves the use of carbide peroxide teeth bleaching. Depending on the peroxide concentration’s safety limit (for example, around two hours for Opalescence 15% PF till thirty minutes for 35% PF), your tolerance for an foreign object in your mouth and any existing teeth sensitivity problems, these bleaching gels are left on your teeth for around an hour as mentioned in the product instructions. The hydrogen peroxide takes some time to be activated before the real bleaching process commences, so the longer you leave the gel on the more bleaching is produced (within safety time limits because over bleaching can occur).
Many different teeth whitening treatments use the same peroxide based teeth gels. Depending on the peroxide concentration, your tolerance for foreign objects in your mouth and teeth sensitivity problems if any, these bleaching gels can be applied on your teeth for around an hour as mentioned in the product instructions.
