In a world obsessed with beauty and fashion, teeth whitening has almost become a necessity in your regular beauty regime. But, what you need to know, is that there are dangers to the DIY kits. Dentists provide affordable, safe, effective teeth whitening options to make your teeth sparkle!
Tooth Whitening Options
There are two types of dentist-approved treatments: in-surgery whitening and supervised home-whitening with custom fabricated trays.
In-surgery whitening is light activated or high concentration whitening, such as the Zoom in-chair whitening treatment. If you choose this option, you will have an initial consultation with the dentist, a clean and polish, and then the fun begins.
In-Office Whitening
Your mouth will be prepared for the treatment, including covering your gums, but exposing your teeth. This is to ensure that the high strength whitening gel doesn’t touch the gums. A super-bright Zoom light will be used to assist the whitening gel to work. The whole procedure will usually take 45 – 60 minutes, and the gel will be reapplied several times.
We use both the popular Zoom system and a new system called KöR deep bleaching in our surgery. These are the market leaders in whitening, world-wide, and your dentist can advise which may be more suitable for you.
KöR deep bleaching products arrive refrigerated from California. This helps to keep the gel in a more potent form, because it prevents the whitening products from starting to break down and becoming less effective by the time you use them.
KöR deep bleaching provides an in-chair and a supervised home whitening product, with the in-chair form being used as a ‘booster’ after a course of home bleaching.
The in-chair version uses hydrogen peroxide as the bleaching agent, similar to Zoom but minus the light. The take home version uses carbamide peroxide. The carbamide peroxide in the take-home version allows for long, slow, and effective night-time whitening.
Supervised Home Whitening
KöR deep bleaching doesn’t mean the active ingredients penetrate the teeth more, but that their process is more refined with a very specific protocol. Your dentist will make a tray for your teeth that is very close fitting.
This is made from a much more detailed impression than most other whitening systems and it seals tightly over the teeth so it minimizes the amount of saliva getting in. With this extra care, the bleaching agent can work for much longer overnight, instead of only for a couple of hours.
With KöR deep bleaching, you can expect the best result possible. It’s the only system known to bleach away tetracycline staining, which is a very resistant form of stain.
Tetracycline staining occurs when people take tetracycline antibiotics while their adult teeth are developing. Generally, tetracycline staining appears as very brown and grey teeth.
Everyone’s enamel is different, so everyone will have different results; however, all the factors are there to make it the most effective form of professional whitening.
Dangers of off-the-shelf home whitening kits
With the rise of Instagram and its marketing capabilities, we are seeing a lot of costly at-home kits that you can buy from almost any chemist, pharmacy or online. It’s important to understand why dentists don’t sell them and why they are not ‘dentist approved’.
The problem isn’t that they don’t work (although they definitely are not as effective as a dentist administered treatment), it’s that the trays in the DIY kits are not close fitting.
Trays that are not tight-fitting or sealable means that saliva can get it, which makes the bleaching agent break down and become less effective. It also means the bleaching agent can escape and can burn your gums and be swallowed.
Some of the DIY kits have six per cent hydrogen peroxide, which may not sound like a lot, but if it’s burning your gums and mouth, it will definitely feel like a lot. The only way to treat peroxide burns is to apply Vitamin E cream to relieve the pain.
More information about teeth whitening is available on our website
