If your teeth are healthy and you want to simply whiten your smile home whitening offers you the safest, cheapest solution at a fraction of the cost of movie star veneers!
What are the advantages? Home whitening using a safe concentration gel and the following advantages over the alternatives:
- Safest and most effective technique
- Easy and relatively comfortable
- Uses a safe concentration gel
- Cheaper than alternative techniques
- Best longevity
- Whitens all your teeth
- Repeat treatment after several years is relatively cheap
Disadvantages of tooth whitening
- It can make your teeth a little sensitive to cold for a few days
- You have to remember to apply the gel!
- You need to be patient, it’s a gentle technique
- Some times dental work may be needed to prepare your mouth for tooth whitening e.g. to repair a leaking filling
- If you have crowns, veneers or white fillings on front teeth you may decide these have these changed after tooth whitening to make their shade match your whiter natural teeth
In our experience the benefits of tooth whitening outweigh the disadvantages.
What are the alternatives to tooth whitening? Dentists use porcelain veneers or crowns to change the shape and shade of natural teeth. They are beautiful restorations but they are expensive and require tooth preparation. Impressions are taken, and the porcelain veneers (a bit like false-fingernails) or the crowns are cemented over your teeth. To change your whole smile you would need one per tooth. These are great if your teeth are already heavily repaired with fillings and maybe veneers or crowns.
What are the benefits of tooth whitening? An attractive frosty white smile can boost your self-confidence and make you look more youthful. It is a simple treatment that can knock a few years of the appearance of your teeth!
Are over the counter kits any good? Simple answer no. Bleaching kits purchased over the counter are such low concentration that they are unlikely to make a change in tooth shade.
The gel that dentists use is prescribed and not available to the general public. When there is already a dentist approved, good value and safe technique available to you it is false economy to try DIY tooth whitening. Dentists recommend tooth whitening is supervised and in any case you need a check–up to make sure your dentition is ready for tooth whitening. Every year a few patients are referred to us in pain and it turns out that this is due to unsupervised DIY tooth whitening that their dentist did not know about.
Mail order and internet gel can be very acidic and damage your teeth. Cases of this occurring are documented in the dental journals. Some kits contain materials that are intensely white (like white paint) and their effect is short lived and they are a waste of your time and money.