Teeth Whitening

[B17NNS]

Years of nicotine, coffee and red wine have taken their toll on my pearly whites.

I get regular scale and polish treatments at the dentist but would like to improve the whiteness a touch.

I've seen hundreds of websites offering kits. My question is have any of you used any of these products and if so to any degree of success?

Any recommendations or is it just the new snakeoil?

Any chaps not liberated enough to reply on here feel free to PM me In the meantime I'm off to the DIY section to discuss powertools grrrrr.

Thanks in advance

R. Hammond

[anonymous-user]

watch this thread die now its been moved!

[B17NNS]

Yep

[sherman]

This is the man you need to ask

[Technonotice]

My mate used one of the kits where you shine the lazer/light onto your teeth.
The instructions stated to use it for only 1 minute or something, he used it for half an hour.

The result:

He burnt all the skin off his gums and lips.

My reaction:



His teeth were quite white after though!

[catmartin]

As far as I know you can buy the professional stuff online but would you want to risk messing it up? I got a kit from Boots once and ended up looking like the Joker for a weekend! And that's not even the strong whitening chemical.

[Dominic H]

Went to my dentist, where she took impressions and produced a set of soft plastic/rubber gumshields. Into which a <10% hydrogen peroxide gel is spread, and the shields worn overnight. After 10-14 days the results are quite noticeable. They cost somewhere in the region of £300, that included replacing an amalgam filling with a white in my upper R2.

Right, I'm off to discuss power tools in the DIY thread.....

[shoggoth1]

There was a thread about this some time ago. I seem to remember that someone, possibly a dentist, stated that some of the DIY kits essentially just 'redden' your gums. Your perception is then that your teeth are whiter in contrast.

[Driller]

There are basically two types of system: Office and "ambulatory".

The office system uses a much more powerful concentration of chemical which is activated by a lamp. This works really well and is what the "stars" use on the telly. One appointment of 45mins is normally all it takes.
You can't use this system at home.

The other system involves the dentist making you a mouthguard for each jaw. You take these home and fill them with the home version of the whitening paste (which is much weaker) and normally wear them at night. You do this for two weeks and in my experience the results are disappointing.

PeterPeter on here uses the Zoom office whitening system which I believe he gets really good results with.

[B17NNS]

Thanks for the replys.

This is the site I've seen www.smile-brighter.com

All looks a bit too good to be true and a bit too cheap though hence my concern. They supply the gumsheilds and solution.

Might give it a whirl, what have I got to lose (other than my gums )

If it doesn't work I guess I'll have to go down the dentist route.

[DocJock]

B17NNS said:

Thanks for the replys.

This is the site I've seen www.smile-brighter.com

All looks a bit too good to be true and a bit too cheap though hence my concern. They supply the gumsheilds and solution.

Might give it a whirl, what have I got to lose (other than my gums )

If it doesn't work I guess I'll have to go down the dentist route.

Like Driller said, peterpeter is your man.

[Shaolin]

I had dentist made moulds that fitted my teeth very closely and then used low concentration peroxide - about 7.5% not the 30%+ stuff you see around. Once I'd run out of what the dentist supplied at extravagant cost I bought 9.5% gel from ebay for a lot less.

The Zoom whitening can give you some severe after-the-event shooting pains which I why I avoided it. Also you can end up paying a lot to sit in a chair and have the dentist shine a light on your teeth.

I was pleased with the process I chose, about half an hour a day, I had a few pains with the 45 mins I was told to use, 30 mins was fine - about 90% of the effect happens in this time frame. You can build it up as you see fit, the whiteness loses a bit of intensity over a day or so, so you get to balance top and bottom and also different teeth, canines are thicker and so whiten slower than incisors for instance. I was also told I'd need a couple of treatments each year which I can easily do myself.