Teeth whitening – what are your options?

In this day and age, looks seem to be more important than ever. Thisis evidenced by the fact that the health and beauty industry is worthbillions each year. One of the most common things that people wantto change about the appearance is the colour of their teeth,particularly when there is excessive staining.

With so many celebrities sporting perfectly white smiles, this of coursehas an impact on the overall culture and makes a lot of people feelself-conscious if they have stained teeth. Yellowing of teeth is down toa combination of the natural aging process, genetics, diet as well asfactors such as smoking. For people who are interested in whiteningtheir teeth, there are a number of options available. This include -

Home whitening kits – There are many home whitening kitsavailable on the market but their effectiveness is questionable atbest. A lot of people find that they’re fiddly to use and don’tprovide the results they were hoping for. There’s also thequestion of safety when using a home whitening kit since it’seasy for people to ignore the instructions to try and get betterresults.

Whitening toothpastes – Another option available is the rangeof ‘whitening’ toothpastes that are on the market. These vary ineffectiveness but in truth, anyone looking to go from yellowingteeth to a sparkling white smile is going to disappointed. Whilstthey can remove some staining and provide protection againstfurther staining, whitening toothpastes, in most cases, are notpowerful enough to provide the level of whitening that mostpeople desire.

Cosmetic dental treatment – The last, and by far best option isto get your teeth whitened professionally, either by a dentist orbeauty salon that has qualified dental staff. Professional teethwhitening can be done in one of a couple of ways. The first is touse bleaching gel.

The dentist will take an impression of your teeth in order tomake a mouthguard for you to wear at home. You then apply thebleaching gel to the mouthguard and wear it for the amount oftime instructed until the desired results are achieved. Thesecond option is laser whitening. Although this technique stilluses bleaching gel, a laser is shone onto your teeth to activatethe whitening properties and thus speed up the process. Thistreatment takes around 1 hour.

Is it possible to get teeth whitening done on the NHS?

Teeth whitening NHS services are only available when there is amedical reason that you need it. For example, if one or more of yourteeth have become discoloured because the nerve has died. For purelycosmetic reasons however, you’ll need to get treatment done privately.