If you have stained teeth due to drinking caffeine or red wine, smoking, or taking certain medication, then you may have been considering getting your teeth whitened. With an abundance of dental whitening products on the market, it can be a minefield knowing where to start. The fact is that anybody can sell a dental whitening product as long as it contains less than 0.1% hydrogen peroxide, but often, products you can buy on the high street don’t declare what the ingredients are, so it is difficult to know whether what you are purchasing is safe or not. Therefore, the only guaranteed safe route to getting your teeth lightened and brightened is visiting a dental practice that offers this service; dentists are allowed to provide 0.1% to 6% hydrogen peroxide in their product, enabling you to get that zinger of a smile you’re hoping for. With years of training and experience under their belts, dentists are unsurprisingly still the go-to professional for all dental treatments, including cosmetic ones.
How does at-home whitening treatment work?
When you go to a dentist, some will offer in-house treatment at their clinic using lasers. However, it is far more common for dentists to provide their patients with an at-home whitening kit that is made bespoke for them. A dentist Navan, for example, will offer an initial consultation, where they will discuss treatment options and examine the patient’s mouth. Once a dental whitening treatment has been agreed upon, the dentist will then have an appointment to take impressions of the patient’s mouth and send it away for custom-made trays. These trays must be worn over the teeth like a gum shield, and inside them, the patient will have to apply the dental whitening product.
Patients will normally be directed to wear the trays at night for a couple of weeks, after which they will be required to attend a final appointment with their dentists to check their progress. The trays can then be kept for top-up treatments to maintain the results. Some dentists also provide special toothpaste to go with the whitening treatment to ensure that the teeth aren’t too sensitive for the treatment, and other pastes may be provided to maintain the results.
How to maintain white teeth
Once you have had your teeth whitened, there are certain foods and drinks you can avoid to help the effects of your dental whitening last longer. These include caffeine, red and white wine, sports drinks, carbonated sodas (both dark and light ones), sauces such as soy, tomato and curry sauces, berries and other foods with strong colourings. While it may be impossible to eliminate these foods from your diet completely, you should aim to reduce the amounts you consume if you wish to prolong the effects of your dental whitening. Chat with your dentist for further guidance on what you need to do to maintain the effects of your treatment and ensure that you have a fresh and beautiful smile for as long as possible.
What are you waiting for?
If you are keen to get a lighter and brighter smile, then it is definitely advisable to visit your dentist for treatment that is safe and able to get the best results possible. Bear in mind that while this may be more costly, it is also a safer and regulated treatment provided by trained professionals. Why wouldn’t you choose that and go for it?!
