White and bright teeth are the key to feeling completely confident in your smile. Whether you’ve got your teeth whitening appointment all scheduled up in your diary or you’re just toying with the idea of kicking your smile up a few notches, you’ll want to head into your process as informed as possible. You know what they say, knowledge is power – and they’re right! Here is how the tooth whitening process actually works, and what you can expect to experience when you book in with your dental professional to get started…
Treatment Options
Your dental professional will work with you to decipher what form of whitening treatment is going to be best for you. You will usually run into two significant choices, take home or in-chair. Take home treatments will be administered by your dentist, and will commonly involve a fitted retainer that is taken from an impression of your smile. Once your retainer is ready you will take it home along with a set of dental grade whitening solutions. You apply this solution into small pockets located within the retainer, and wear overnight or for an hour or two each day for as long as your dentist recommends. This is great for gradual brightening and you can top your smile up every now and then when you feel like you need an extra boost of whitening. In-office treatments can include light whitening. This is where you dentist covers your gums and coats your teeth with a potent bleaching agent (which will commonly contain hydrogen peroxide), your mouth will then be exposed to a special lamp which activates the gel and lightens your teeth. This can be one off or a series of treatments, frequency or requirements will always be determined on a case by case basis by a dental professional.
How to Prepare for Teeth Whitening
Now that you have a good idea of the treatment options out there, you can start to prep yourself and your smile for a brand new shade of brilliant white! You’ll want to head into your whitening appointment with your teeth in the best shape possible, and how do you do this? Regular check ups and cleans, diligent at home maintenance and healthy lifestyle habits – come on, you know this! It’s so easy to put aspects of our well being on the back burner when we’re busy dealing with work, life and pressing more glaringly obvious health issues, we’re all only human, after all. Try to schedule time into your routine to dedicate to your smile. This will ensure that you are healthy and it’s also going to avoid you having to undergo future teeth whitening. Upkeep is the key, so get familiar with it.
How to Maintain a Brighter Smile
Speaking of maintenance! You’ll need to be pretty careful when you first bleach your teeth, but you’re also going to have to reassess that lifestyle of yours. You’ll need to avoid black coffee, black tea and red wine when you’re in the thick of whitening treatments, these get into the pores of the teeth and can cause worse staining than you had to begin with. Stick to light, healthy foods during the process for the best results. Following your whitening treatment, you should take a look at how much caffeine and alcohol you’re consuming as these lead to long term staining. You should also look at scheduling more time for maintaining your smile and seriously consider ditching poor lifestyle habits such as smoking or lack of sleep.
Contact your dental professional to get started on your teeth whitening journey today!