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A Few Secrets About Teeth Whitening That Your Dentist Hopes I'll
Never Tell You! |
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by Dr. Harold Katz, Founder of The
California Breath Clinics |
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Do You Know The Major Differences
Between Dental Office and At-Home Teeth Whitening
- What Can You Really Expect From an At-Home Whitening
System? (and which ones you should stay away from!)
- What To Look For In A Teeth Whitening System To Make
Sure That You Have The Whitest Teeth, Freshest Breath, and the
Healthiest Mouth -
With The Least Tooth Sensitivity!
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There are essentially TWO DIFFERENT methods to get whiter
teeth:
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Dental (In-office) Whitening
and
- Home Treatment
Method 1: Dental (In-office) Whitening |
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I can tell you from first-hand experience, dentists LOVE the
patient who wants their teeth bleached in the dental office
Back in the early '90's, there was only one option! |
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Your dentist would make 'molds' of your teeth, send them off
to a lab, and in 5-10 days receive back your custom fitted
mouthpiece. Then you would sit in the dental chair for 1-2
hours, with these plastic molds filled with peroxide (at a
very low concentration) pressed against your teeth and gums.
After 3-4 visits, you teeth would be officially declared
whiter (and usually they were), and you would be sent home
with a nice, fat $500 - $1,000 bill to pay. And with whiter
teeth of course. |
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Now I'll be the first to admit, dental office whitening has come
a long way in the past 10 years. Now the most popular dental
whitening procedure known as Laser Bleaching (or Power
Bleaching, Argon Bleaching, etc.) which basically consists of
the application of a concentrated peroxide gel spread onto your
teeth, and for the next hour you sit in a dental chair with your
mouth wide open, while a special light (usually argon) is shined
onto the paste which chemically reacts with the peroxide to
complete the bleaching process in as short a time period as
possible. |
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This procedure does work (although many dentists say that
you get a whiter smile by repeated tray applications because
the peroxide stays in contact with your teeth for longer
periods of time), however the downside is that you still get
stuck with that fat $500 - $1,000 bill (at least for the
good dental whitening!). And you STILL need to either
come back 6 months later for another whitening
(excuse me - a touch up!), |
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or you're given
some take home bleaching items (then why did you spend
$500-$1000 dollars for the in-office procedure?). |
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Fortunately (as with most other things in life), technology
stepped in to make teeth whitening easier and more affordable! |
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Method 2: Home Teeth Whitening |
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I'll say this once, just to get it out in the open:
It's now possible (in
almost all cases) to achieve "dental office" quality teeth
whitening, from the comfort of your own home.
"At-Home" Teeth Bleaching has taken a bite out of (sorry about
the pun) the "in office" power bleaching systems, where millions
of corporate advertising dollars now compete with the comfort of
doing it at home. |
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And rightly so... |
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Essentially, there are 3 different types of home-teeth
whitening available:
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Brush-on whitening
- Strips you stick on your teeth
- Trays with bleaching gels
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1.) Brush-on whitening
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Brush-on whitening in principal is a great concept - just brush
on the formula, allow it to dry on your teeth, and let it stay
on your teeth overnight. Sounds simple, right? |
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In reality, brush-on whitening is designed for the segment
of the public that is in love with shortcuts. (in other
words, for those people who don't want to spend the time to
do it right the first time). Brush-on whitening has two
main flaws:
1. When you brush on the formula, it
relies on the premise that it will dry on your teeth. This
is great in principle, but if you get the formula wet
(i.e. from saliva or from licking your teeth) |
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then it becomes
REALLY easy to rub off parts of the whitening formulas. And
guess what happens if you rub off only part of the whitening
formula? You got it - you don't get an even whitening result! It
turns out patchy, and blotchy. (reminds me of the time I painted
our first apartment - better yet, don't ask!) |
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2. The second flaw with most brush-on whitening as I see it, is
the ingredients. If you look at the ingredient list of the
leading brush on whitener, you'll see the first ingredient is
alcohol - and if you've read my free e-book
'The Bad Breath Bible'
then you already know that
alcohol is terrible for your breath! Actually, I'm sure the
reason why they've added alcohol to their formula is because
it's needed as a desiccant (something that dries out the formula
so that it supposedly stays on your teeth at night), however
that still doesn't diminish the effect it can have on your gums
and your breath. Also most of these brush-on whitening formulas
contain glycerin - glycerin literally sucks the moisture out
from the enamel of your teeth and it's the primary cause of most
tooth sensitivity from whitening. |
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2.) Strips you stick on your teeth |
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The second most common type of home teeth whitening is using
whitening strips. The main lure of this type of home teeth
whitening is their simplicity of use - they're easy to apply and
no preparation is necessary. Again, everybody loves shortcuts,
right? Unfortunately, once again that's exactly the type of
teeth whitening you end up getting! Let me explain... |
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Strips that stick on your teeth usually consist of an upper
strip and a lower strip each pressed against the outer
surface of your teeth. Now think about this for a second….
Are your teeth completely flat? Of course not - they have
recesses and grooves, particularly between each tooth. Well
imagine you're painting a fence, and you just slapped paint
on the outside, Without taking the time to paint the grooves |
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between each
wooden board. That fence would look pretty funny wouldn't it?
Nicely painted on the outside, but in the grooves between each
wooden board, still dark and dingy, with all of the old paint
showing. |
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When you use whitening strips, the same thing can easily happen
to your teeth if you're not careful. The whiter your teeth
become, the more pronounced those dingy cracks seem! Eventually
it can end up looking like you have small gaps between your
teeth. Definitely not the desired result! |
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3.) Trays with bleaching gels |
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Trays with
Bleaching Gels still provide the best combination of the
most affordable and most efficient tooth whitening
available. Since I'm a dentist, I can let you in on a few
little secrets here (secrets that most dentists would
shoot me for telling you since it costs them thousands in
lost income!)
First, most of the bleaching gels available at your
dentist are exactly the same. There is very little
difference from one dentist to another, because the gels
are formulated by a
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small number
of manufacturers. |
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Second, most of the bleaching gels available at retail
stores are of very poor quality. They've been sitting in a
warehouse or on a truck for who knows how long - and,
because they are designed to be "low cost" (with low cost
being sometimes the only (consideration), they have very
low concentrations of active ingredients. |
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Make sure you use a bleaching gel with a concentration of at
least 21% - this means a whiter result in a shorter period
of time! Third, the one thing in common between dental
bleaching gels and "store" gels is that they both use
glycerin as a carrying agent. Now there is nothing wrong
with glycerin. It is not dangerous in any way. However, when
mixed with carbamide peroxide the glycerin is used to draw
water out of the enamel in order to speed up the bleaching
process. This is what causes the most common side effect of
bleaching - sensitive
teeth! (By the way, my |
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TheraBrite formula
doesn't use a glycerin base - that's
just one reason why it's so unique.) |
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Armed with
this New Knowledge, Now What Should You Do? |
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Well, there are four
key components to making sure you get the best possible tooth
whitening every time you whiten your teeth. |
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- Immediately before bleaching, brush your teeth with an
oxygenating toothpaste combined with the finest natural
polishing agents AND aloe vera to strengthen your gums &
prevent any sensitivity.
- Use form-fitting mouth trays that are fitted to your
specific bite. Make sure they fit snugly around each tooth,
and at all points they press firmly around the sides of your
teeth and gums.
- Use a 21% concentrated bleaching gel based on carbamide
peroxide that is formulated specifically to reduce the
sensitivity to your teeth and gums. (In other words - No
glycerin)
- Immediately after bleaching, enhance the effect by using
an oxygenating oral rinse. Make sure not to use a mouthwash
with alcohol as this can actually chemically curtail the
bleaching effect.
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The best home bleaching systems use a moldable tray system that
contains mouthpieces which you can actually fit to your mouth.
You mold them by soaking them for a few seconds in warm water,
then you press the plastic up (or down) against your teeth and
gums. When the plastic cools you have a nice soft plastic
mouthpiece that is fitted to the curves of your particular
smile. |
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To make sure your teeth are "as clean as a whistle"-- and to
make sure that the bleaching gel directly contacts your tooth
enamel (instead of dental plaque), brush your teeth for two
minutes with an oxygenating, slightly abrasive toothpaste
immediately before bleaching. You should use as strong of
bleaching gel as possible to ensure that the time your teeth are
in contact with the whitening gel is well spent. The older gels
used 16% carbamide peroxide, but the newer gels can be as high
as 22% peroxide. But, it's imperative that the gel does not
contain any glycerin to reduce any sensitivity the whitening gel
may have on your teeth and gums. A flavored bleaching gel also
helps - why not make the experience as pleasant as possible? No
need for it to taste bad! |
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After your at-home bleaching session, it is very wise to rinse
thoroughly with an oxygenating mouthwash to prolong the effect
(an alcohol-based mouthwash will chemically curtail the
bleaching process). |
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Follow this procedure 5 days in a row, doing the top and bottom
arch separately for comfort (you can try to do both at once if
you prefer - I actually do it this way, but everyone is
different), and you will have a noticeably whiter smile -
GUARANTEED! |
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