Pros and Cons of Teeth Whitening

Image : http://www.flickr.com

Everybody wants a whiter and brighter smile. Who doesn't? And a person who longs to achieve a perfect smile is willing to spend thousands of dollars and endure the treatment for the sake of a whiter and brighter smile. The rewards are great. You become more attractive. Your gain more confidence. You develop more healthy oral hygienic habits. But there are also disadvantages like high costs and it is always wise to discuss the several advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

To improve appearance. This is the main goal of every person who wants to get his or her teeth whitened. Always associated with beauty and healthy lifestyle, a whiter and brighter set of teeth is highly coveted in this image-conscious world. If you have whiter teeth, you tend to smile more often because you have more confidence.

Also, a whiter smile takes away the attention from any facial wrinkles or imperfection you might have and to that winning smile.
And not but certainly not the least, a set of whiter teeth gives you a friendlier appearance than when your teeth were discolored or stained.

Disadvantages:

Tooth whitening procedures are very effective but there are also disadvantages like sore teeth or gums resulting from the bleaching treatment. This is only short term because when bleaching is discontinued, the sore disappears. This happens to patients who are sensitive to the bleaching chemical. Ask your dentist for any alternative bleaching solution that you are not allergic to.

Clinical studies have shown that tooth whitening is effective to more than 78 percent of all patients who have undergone a certain procedure. But for those that bleaching did not work because of a more serious discoloration condition, other options maybe more potent. A good choice, albeit more expensive, are veneers or crowns.

There are also patients who experience discomfort wearing the mouth-ray in a custom-fit tray bleaching procedure. This usually happens when the tray is not perfectly aligned with the teeth. You need to call your dentist and have him or her create adjustments to the mold so it will hold your teeth firmly and comfortably.
Custom-Fit Tray Bleaching

There is an at-home teeth whitening procedure in which a tray is custom-fitted to your teeth. A teeth impression is taken from your mouth like you would when getting dentures and a custom-fit tray is created for you to take home and worn for a certain period of time. Before being worn, the tray is filled with bleaching gel. The length of time the tray is worn depends upon the gel's potency and your whitening needs. Because this procedure is more convenient and costs less, this is the preferred procedure of most people.

Results are noticeable in a couple of days but the full effects of teeth whitening takes about 1 to 2 weeks. Custom-fir tray bleaching is more often used together with an in-office laser teeth whitening especially for people who have severe teeth discoloration.