Safe Teeth Whitening

While any means of whitening teeth would be welcome for most people, safe teeth whitening is always a priority.  After all, beyond the simply aesthetic improvements gained by having whiter teeth, it is also important that your teeth are healthy and strong.  If your teeth become whiter from some sort of treatment, but they are consequently damaged in the process, what good has really been done?  Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about the safest methods of whitening your teeth.

The safeness of teeth whitening depends almost entirely upon the methods used. There are truly a multitude of options, such as at home teeth whitening, when it comes to whitening your teeth, but there are also some important distinctions to be made before we can go further with such a discussion.

First of all, there are some products which bleach your teeth, while others whiten them. The FDA has decided to regulate the terms in such a way that the word “bleach” is used when teeth are whitened beyond what their natural color would have been. As such, these products will generally contain hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide.

Whitening products, then, is not going to artificially color your teeth. Instead, it is going to remove the stains and debris that have built up over time and caused your teeth to become, well, not so white. You should be careful, though, because many products that do contain bleaching agents are falsely referred to as “whitening” products. Checking the ingredients will help you a lot.

Your main concerns with teeth whitening safety will have to do with increased sensitivity (which usually only lasts for a couple of days), irritation to your gums, or uneven whitening as some teeth respond to others, which is more of an appearance-related issue. If you have receding gums, you will be more likely to have problems. A higher concentration of peroxide will be more likely to cause side effects, but also will be more likely to provide good results. In general, teeth whitening is very safe.

The services that are usually referred to as laser teeth whitening are actually light activated treatments, which are highly regarded because they can whiten teeth to an incredible degree (up to 10 shades) in a short amount of time (less than an hour, in most cases).  How it works is that whitening gel is applied (which can be a number of brands, including BriteSmile, Zoom or Rembrandt) to the teeth, and a specific type of light is applied to the teeth for about an hour, which activates the gel and whitens the teeth.  It really is an amazing procedure, and carries no real risks, other than short-term increased sensitivity.

Any methods are generally very safe, as long as they either consist of using over the counter products from companies that you can trust, or are overseen by an experienced dentist.  The most popular ways to whiten teeth usually include home whitening kits (which can be purchased at the store or given to you from your dentist, with the dentist-given kits usually being of the higher quality level) or treatments given by your dentist in their office, which are the most expensive, but safest and most reliable way to go.

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to whiten your teeth that are perfectly safe. Of course, safety should always be your first concern, and considerations such as price and the quality or permanence of the results should come afterward. Safe teeth whitening is just a matter of knowing what is good for your teeth, what is not good for them, and not doing anything that is going to cause problems with your teeth in the short or long term. Follow the tips outlined here, and you should have no problems whatsoever.