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With a procedure that the American Dental Association estimates makes up the bulk of the dental cosmetics industry, teeth bleaching or power whitening can improve your smile, too. And it takes only as little as a week to start seeing results to several weeks for you to see the full difference in the color of your teeth. (Periodic maintenance bleaching may be required every six to twelve months to keep your smile its whitest).
The dental industry has made major strides in the science of teeth bleaching. From the high end of costly in-house dental cosmetics (costing thousands of dollars) to the do-it-yourself home practitioner (costing under one hundred dollars), there are some things you should know about this billion-dollar industry.
The first thing you should know is that while there are plenty of do-it-yourself teeth bleaching products on the market, the American Dental Association advises if you do use them, you use them only under a dentist’s supervision. They recommend patients get treatments from dentists, however. Since bleaching products can damage the gums, tooth enamel, dentin, pulp, and other areas of your mouth, you need an expert to advise you on the procedure.
In fact, your dental practitioner can tell you if you should even be using whitening products on your teeth. Some teeth may not benefit from teeth bleaching procedures, and your dentist can advise you whether he feels bleaching is a good option for you or if you would be better off to go with some other cosmetic procedure, such as bonding or the application of porcelain veneers.
If your teeth can benefit from teeth bleaching, your dentist can inform you whether or not the whitening is occurring as it should or if something may be going wrong with the procedure. He can also show you charts to give you an estimate on just how white you can expect your smile to become. For instance, yellowish teeth may bleach out beautifully, whereas grayish-colored teeth may not whiten at all with the procedure. Your dentist can fit you with custom bleaching trays to do the job, and he can monitor the results.
While in-office teeth bleaching is the safest route to go, home teeth bleaching can be safe, too, if done properly. Using a bleaching gel containing 10 to 16% carbamide or hydrogen peroxide, a home user fits a thin bleaching tray laced with the gel over his teeth. As the gel starts to work, oxygen enters the tooth enamel and whitens the teeth by eliminating stains. The procedure is done periodically over a two-to-three-week time frame when maximum whitening results usually occur.
Whichever route you take to get your whitest smile, dentists advise that you may experience some discomfort such as increased tooth sensitivity to cold, or sore gums and throat during the procedure. But these symptoms are usually transitory and disappear after treatments are finished.
So, if you, too want to have a million-dollar smile like so many of our favorite television celebrities do, teeth bleaching may be the dental cosmetic option for you.
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