Teeth Whitening Methods

There are many ways to whiten your teeth, here we present some of the most common methods:

Teeth Whitening at Home

There are several ways to whiten your teeth at home. One way is to letting either the dentist or a dental clinic make teeth impressions on you and then create mouth trays specially designed for you. The actual bleaching process is undertaken in such a way as to apply a whitening gel into the tray and then attached it to the teeth and allow the whitening gel to work for some time. This part is often done at home with the help of the teeth trays that you have prepared. A kit with custom-designed trays + teeth whitening gel usually cost a great deal.

The alternative is to buy a home kit on the Internet, then you produce your own mouth trays by putting the tray in hot water which you then shape by biting, this is much cheaper than going to the dentist. Whitening gel that you get with the home kit is often exactly the same as you buy more expensive at the dentist or dental clinic.

The gel that you bleach your teeth with often contains carbamide peroxide as an active substance. This gives a result that lasts for years, but may give a sensitive feeling in the teeth during and after the process a bit.

Teeth Whitening Pen

One way to whiten your teeth on your own is with so-called whitening pens. With a teeth whitening pen, you can bleach your teeth without the hassle of mouth trays, etc. The pen is filled with whitening gel and instead of a pin tip, the teeth whitening pen is equipped with a mini brush. You gently push a little gel out of the pen and then brush your teeth. A teeth whitening pen typically contains a few milliliters of bleaching agents of relatively high concentration. The advantage of a teeth whitening pen is that it is less hassle than with other methods, you can do it easy in front of a mirror at any time and you will see results in just minutes.

Benefits of a teeth whitening pen

Lightweight and easy to bring with you, you can always have it in a bag or purse if you're traveling.

The disadvantage of a teeth whitening pen

No adequate substitute for a real good teeth whitening treatment that is durable for several years. It is not easy to brush hard to reach teeth.

Teeth Whitening at the Dentist

The dentist uses a mixture of hydrogen peroxide that is appropriate for you. Before the treatment, your teeth is cleaned and your mouth will be checked to see if it is in good condition. Your dentist will usually also isolate the teeth from the rest of the mouth so that the powerful gel do not come into contact with something other than the teeth. The dentist then uses a gel having a strength of 15 to 35% and sometimes a light source is used to accelerate the chemical reaction.

The most common is that the dentist mold a teeth tray for you and send you the teeth whitening gel, which you use to whiten your teeth at home. This is often exactly the same teeth whitening gel as sold in various home-whitening crap on the net.

The advantage to bleach your teeth at the dentist is that they mold a good teeth whitening tray for you. At the dentist/dental clinics where they bleach with stronger whitening gel (sometimes in combination with light sources) is that bleaching can be faster than doing it yourself at home with a weaker concentrated gel. The disadvantage is obviously that it costs a lot more than a "home-bleaching".

Teeth Whitening by Laser

Bleaching by laser is performed in a similar manner as the whitening gel, but a lasers is used to speed up the bleaching process. While doing a teeth whitening by laser you do this in a dental clinic, and they often use a higher concentration of whitening gel than the one you use at home. The treatment itself is also much faster than the one you do at home, often only an hour.

Sometimes you have to make a return visits to achieve the whiteness you want. Since the teeth are heated a few degrees by the laser light, you can get a sensitive or icy feeling in the teeth during the treatment, these feelings do disappear over time, but they can consist a few days after treatment. According to health care advisors, there is no scientific evidence that bleaching using laser provides a better result than other processes.