Home Teeth Whitening

As we all know, teeth tend to stain over time due to various factors. The staining continues even with a robust dental care regimen, though this yellowing slows down significantly when you regularly brush and floss your teeth. Fortunately, teeth whitening at home can help you reverse the stains on the teeth, allowing you to retain a bright white smile.

Home teeth whitening refers to techniques performed at home to prevent or reduce teeth staining. This whitening mainly benefits from hydrogen-peroxide, the chemical solution that dissolves hardened plaque to reveal a whiter tooth surface. A qualified dentist usually prescribes teeth whitening kits, each of which is used on the teeth in a particular way.

Common Reasons Behind Discolored Teeth

Teeth discoloration can occur due to many different reasons. The teeth whitening plan may vary depending on the reason for your teeth’ discoloration. Therefore, it is essential to speak to a qualified dentist before going ahead with the home teeth whitening option.

Common reasons your teeth may get discolored are as follows.

• Foods and beverages: Drinks – such as colas, teas, and coffee – and foods – such as pasta – can cause your teeth to stain.
• Tobacco: This includes smoking or chewing tobacco.
• Poor dental hygiene: Failing to brush and floss regularly leads to the accumulation of bacterial plaque on your teeth. This accumulation can cause permanent teeth yellowness over time.
• Health condition: Some health conditions cause poor development of tooth enamel, leading to the internal yellower layer (dentin) becoming more prominent. This causes teeth to appear discolored. Some treatments, such as radiation and chemotherapy, may also cause this discoloration. Moreover, pregnant women are generally more prone to getting infections that can hamper enamel development.
• Medications: Some antibiotic medications, such as doxycycline and tetracycline, are known to affect enamel formation in children under eight years. Mouthwashes that contain cetylpyridinium chloride and chlorhexidine may also cause stains on your teeth.
• Materials used in dental restorations: Many dental fillings consist of amalgam, which casts a gray-black shade onto your teeth.
• Aging: Aging leads to the slow but steady deterioration of the tooth enamel, exposing yellower dentin.
• Genetics: Thickness or thinness of tooth enamel can be hereditary.
• Trauma: A mouth injury during a contact sport or accident can cause damage to tooth enamel or disrupt blood flow inside the tooth pulp. This can cause the affected tooth to look gray.

Home Teeth Whitening Benefits

Teeth whitening offers a myriad of benefits that can go a long way toward positively shaping your appearance-related attributes. Here is a quick overview of some most salient benefits of teeth whitening.

• Teeth whitening helps enhance your overall appearance. A brighter smile will complement your facial features quite well.
• You will get a boost in self-confidence. Knowing that you don’t have to hide your teeth due to discoloration brings significant relief. As a result, you can smile more confidently among your friends or colleagues.
• Interestingly, a bright white smile minimizes the appearance of facial wrinkles. This is because whiter teeth tend to become a focal point on your face. As a result, people won’t pay attention to the fine lines and wrinkles.
• Last but not least, teeth whitening at home is highly cost-effective. All you need is a teeth whitening kit, which doesn’t cost much. Even the dentist prescribed whitening solutions for home aren’t much costly.

How Do I Use A Home Teeth Whitening Kit?

At home teeth whitening kits are usually prescribed by dentists and use a higher concentration of hydrogen peroxide or other whitening agents than over-the-counter kits. They are also slightly more expensive than over-the-counter whitening solutions but are overall less costly than in office treatments.

A typical home teeth-whitening kit consists of dental trays, which you need to fill with the whitening solution before putting on the teeth. The size of the trays prevents the whitening solution from coming in contact with the gum tissue.

It is worth mentioning that professional at-home whitening trays are customized according to the shape of your teeth. The reason is to ensure that the whitening solution gets evenly distributed across the tray.

The steps involved in using a teeth-whitening kit are the following.

• First of all, a dentist takes impressions of your teeth on dental putty. These impressions are sent to a lab where experts create custom-molded trays resembling those impressions.
• The dentist notes down the shade of your teeth for comparison after the whitening procedure.
• The dentist calls you for a second appointment when the trays are ready. During this session, they teach you how to dispense these trays and put them onto your teeth.
• It is generally recommended to brush and floss properly before using a whitening tray.
• You may need to wear these custom trays for an hour or two daily for a couple of weeks. Be sure not to eat, drink, and smoke while the trays are on and 30 minutes afterward.
• Your dentist will call you for a follow-up appointment after two weeks of treatment. They will compare the treatment results with the pre-treatment teeth shade.

Zoom Teeth Whitening vs. Home Teeth Whitening

Philips Zoom teeth whitening is a specialized in-office treatment that usually takes 45 minutes to an hour. This procedure is characterized by the use of LED whitening light followed by applying a teeth-whitening gel. The LED light accelerates the whitening process significantly. Your dentist will also provide at-home whitening solutions after the Zoom procedure. These solutions are usually a part of the treatment and are covered by the total treatment cost.

In contrast, traditional at-home teeth whitening involves using custom made trays on the teeth. This teeth-whitening method doesn’t use any LED application to speed up the whitening process. And unlike the zoom teeth whitening procedure that whitens teeth in minutes, at-home teeth whitening takes a couple of weeks to come into effect. However, more specialized at-home whitening kits can help achieve goals in a much better way.

Home Teeth Whitening FAQs

Schedule a Consultation

Do you want to whiten your teeth with professional help? EuroMed Clinic Dubai is here to provide that help. Our board-certified dentists provide customized teeth-whitening and dental care solutions to give you a brighter and longer-lasting smile. You can book a consultation by filling out the form below.