Friday, November 21, 2008

Teeth Whitening - A Personal Experience

Teeth whitening is so common these days you feel left out when you look in the mirror and see yellow stains reflecting back. So with all the teeth whitening systems on the market, how does a person find one that works best for them?

When I got my braces off, yes I was an adult with brace face, I was really shocked at how yellow my teeth were. The most embarrassing part was everyone wanted to see my new straight teeth that were also quite yellow!

I really wanted to find a whitening system that was reasonable after all I just finished paying $4000 on braces. I looked on eBay with their auctions that sell the “professional” systems with custom molding trays you can mold yourself using hot water. They hardly shaped to my teeth, the tray just stayed in its boxing tooth guard shape. Plus the syringes of peroxide were goopy and difficult to measure the right amount into each tray. The directions said I only needed a half ml per treatment but usually 4 times that much squirted out. Another thing about the gel was that it got on my gums and really irritated them. That kit from eBay got tossed to the back of my toiletry drawer and my yellow teeth remained.

Then I looked into the custom whitening trays from my orthodontist, they were $350 for the trays and peroxide! This was alot more than I wanted to pay or could afford. I went to another orthodontist to see about another cosmetic tooth procedure. The procedure was expensive too, but he did say to whiten my teeth to the shade I wanted before getting them fixed because the dentist would match the color of the cement or ceramic with my natural tooth color. Dental epoxy won’t lighten with any type of whitening system.

I asked the orthodontist what he recommended to whiten my teeth. I was surprised to hear him say that the over the counter whitening systems was the same stuff the dentists normally use. He said Crest White Strips work fine and I could get the desired results with a package of Crest. I talked to my mother-in-law and she said she didn’t like the Crest White Strips because they were all goopy and gross. I personally never have tried them.

The whitening system that I have tried and got results I was very happy with was the Oral-B Whitening Strips from Rembrandt. It’s a seven day system; you wear a comfortable strip on the upper and lower teeth for 30 minutes a day. There are no gels or mess and they can be easily trimmed to fit over your teeth so your gums are not irritated. One thing I did was fall asleep with them on one night, so they were on my teeth for 6 hours! My teeth were so sensitive the next day they just ached and ached. But when I followed the instructions I got great results and never had any other teeth sensitivity problems. Currently I am enjoying a white bright smile with fabulously straight teeth.

About the author.

Hazel Stevens manages several websites about teeth whitening. These resources are located at http://www.fast-tooth-whitening.com and http://www.dentist-teeth-whitening.com.


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