Dingy, yellowing teeth can make you reluctant to smile for photos or flash a welcoming grin to a friend or colleague. Your less-than-sparkly smile may make you feel self-conscious or less-than-beautiful.
Teeth-whitening seems like an easy answer. While you may be tempted to grab one of the products on the drugstore shelf, these over-the-counter whiteners, including toothpastes, paint-on gels, and strips, aren’t your best option.
At Advanced Care Dentistry in Woodinville, Washington, the dental team of Thomas O. Marxen, DDS, MSD, and Andrew Keith, DDS, recommend professional teeth whitening to patients who want safe and effective whitening results. Read on to learn four major reasons you should leave teeth whitening to a skilled dental team.
An over-the-counter whitening product may contain the same ingredients used in professional solutions, but the concentration is significantly less. Diluting the potency helps make the products safer for at-home use, but it also means they don’t do a very good job breaking up the stains yellowing your teeth.
Research even shows that in-office, professional whitening is superior to drugstore options.
Over-the-counter whitening products may seem like a convenient, inexpensive option, but it can take many applications to get the same results as one 1-hour visit to our office. According to the American Dental Association, over-the-counter applications took 16 days to achieve the whitening effects one visit to a dentist’s office could achieve.
The Philips Zoom! system used at our office brightens your teeth by up to eight shades in one short visit.
Your teeth are yellow and discolored for several reasons, including a red wine or coffee habit, aging, and smoking. Professional teeth whitening can brighten teeth affected by these factors.
But if you have stains or discoloration due to injury, certain medications, or decay, you need a professional dentist to treat the underlying problem and offer treatments like crowns or veneers that will brighten resistant stains.
Before any cosmetic treatment, you get a comprehensive oral exam. Tooth whitening is generally not recommended for tooth decay or active gum disease. We can treat decay and gum disease to improve your overall oral health. Once your smile is healthy, we can talk about professional whitening procedures.
Before an in-office whitening treatment, a technician carefully covers all exposed soft tissue that could be irritated by the whitening solution. If you use an over-the-counter solution, you may need to determine how your gums and cheeks will react. Even though over-the-counter applications have low concentrations of whitening agents, they can still irritate some people’s gums.
During our whitening process, we do everything possible to help you avoid such irritation so you can still benefit from a bright smile.
If you’re ready to get a brighter, whiter smile, contact Advanced Care Dentistry. Call the office or reach out via this website to schedule an appointment.
