Go to the drugstore and you’ll find an oral care aisle filled to the brim with teeth whitening kits. Many of them make lofty promises, like faster whitening, easier treatment, and extra strength, but anyone who’s tried using those kits will likely tell you they didn’t live up to expectations.
It’s easy to assume that teeth whitening is a simple process, but that’s simply not true. In order to get real teeth whitening results you need to use professional strength products and methods like those we employ at Newingham Dental Center.
But why is teeth whitening such a precise practice? All the ingredients and methods seem the same at first glance, but there are a few things that over-the-counter kits just can’t replicate.
The Proper Ingredients
If you’ve spent any time looking into teeth whitening you know that hydrogen peroxide is the go-to product for whitening teeth. As it breaks down into oxygen and water it scrubs stains from the surfaces of teeth, and there’s no questioning that it really works.
Take a look at most commercial whitening kits and you’ll find a different active ingredient: carbamide peroxide, which is just hydrogen peroxide with urea added for stability. The biggest problem with hydrogen peroxide is how unstable it is. Light, heat, and even saliva can cause it to break down before it has a chance to be effective. Carbamide is supposed to be a solution to that instability, but it doesn’t quite work as intended.
The problem is one of potency: a 10 percent carbamide peroxide solution is only about three to four percent hydrogen peroxide, and that’s the ingredient you really want! Carbamide first has to break down into urea and hydrogen peroxide before it can do its job, so the result of most commercial whitening products is weak results that take much longer to accomplish.
The Proper Equipment
Traditional teeth whitening involves the use of peroxide gel and a tray that you wear in your mouth. The tray holds the gel against your teeth and lets it do its job – but do those trays really work as well as they’re supposed to?
Take a look at those hydrogen peroxide breakdown triggers we mentioned above, and you’ll see that one of them poses a big problem for traditional tray whitening: saliva. If you get an over-the-counter whitening kit it’s going to come with a tray that wasn’t designed for your mouth, and that means plenty of saliva can get in.
If you don’t have a custom built whitening tray that fits to your mouth and seals your teeth off from the rest of your mouth you simply won’t be able to get results! When you come to our Birmingham office for teeth whitening we build your trays directly from an impression of your mouth. When you put it in your teeth will be sealed off from saliva, allowing your whitening gel to do its job without interference.
The Proper Treatment
Buying a teeth whitening kit that’s one-size-fits-all means you’re getting a whitening treatment that’s designed for anyone – that’s not what you need! The stains on your teeth are unique to your mouth, and getting good results means finding a custom solution that’s best for your needs.
Both the whitening treatments we offer at Newingham Dental Center are customized to meet your unique needs. Our take-home kits with custom trays are available in a variety of strengths so that we can tackle all the stains coming our way. The Zoom whitening we offer in-office is fast, and can be modified to suit your treatment goals as well.
The bottom line in teeth whitening: if it’s not a custom fit it’s not worth wasting your time!
Faster, Reliable Treatments From The Pro’s
When you come to us you have two options: you can take your whitening home or we can do it in the office in just about an hour. Our in-office treatment involves a thin coating of peroxide gel and the use of a specialized light that accelerates the breakdown of the peroxide for an amazingly quick transformation.
In just three 15 minute sessions we can whiten your teeth up to seven shades. That’s no joke – you could be walking out of our office with a noticeably brighter smile after just 45 minutes of whitening!
We want the chance to show you just what our whitening treatments can do, and we know you want to see the results. If you’re ready to take your smile to the next level then call Newingham Dental Center today!
You can reach our Birmingham office at 248-972-8720 or request an appointment online. We look forward to seeing you soon!