Little White Lie #1
The Lie: Brushing your teeth with whitening toothpaste is the best way to whiten your teeth.
The Truth: No one would argue that you shouldn’t brush your teeth regularly and whitening toothpaste certainly couldn’t hurt. Brushing your teeth is vital to the health of your teeth as well as being a basic tenet of good hygiene. However, the ingredients in whitening toothpastes just don’t spend enough time in direct contact with your teeth to provide the kind of results that people tend to believe that they have.
Your saliva tends to wash off the whitening agents from your teeth, which means that the whitening agents spend only a minimal amount of time in contact with your teeth. It also needs to be noted that the whitening agents in these toothpastes are generally present in extremely low quantities to prevent them from causing irritation. While whitening toothpaste is a great idea on paper, the reality isn’t as wonderful as we’d all like to think.
Little White Lie #2
The Lie: Having your dentist whiten your teeth is the best way to get a brighter, whiter smile.
The Truth: “Best” can be an ambiguous word sometimes. It is true that your dentist can perform tooth whitening procedures for you. However, it’s not necessarily the case that this is the best way of whitening your teeth. The whitening agents which dentists use in these procedures are generally hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide: the same whitening agents found in at home tooth whitening products.
How effective these peroxide tooth whitening systems are depends on two things: How high of a concentration of peroxide is present in the whitening gel and how long this product spends in direct contact with your teeth.
The same results that you could get from a whitening procedure performed by your dentist can be gotten with an at home tooth whitening system as well. It’s simply a question of using a highly concentrated whitener for a short duration versus a less concentrated whitener for a longer time.
Of course, there is one other thing to consider here: price. The cost of an office visit and whitening procedure performed by your dentist is far higher than the cost of a whitening treatment which you can administer yourself at home. The results are the same, but the price of doing it yourself is usually 25% or less than the cost of having your dentist perform the procedure. Knowing this, it should come as no surprise to you that more and more people are choosing home tooth whitening systems.
Little White Lie #3
The Lie: Every tooth whitening product works equally well.
The Truth: There is a lot of difference between tooth whitening solutions. Some products are very effective and others are nearly worthless.
Where these products differ is in the whitening agents which are used. Different products may use one or the other of the two most common whitening agents – but the real difference is in the concentration of these agents, which is what really separates an effective product from one which doesn’t get results. Before you choose an at home whitening product, you should examine the available alternatives, keeping in mind what type of staining you’re seeking to reverse and how severe this staining is.
Little White Lie #4
The Lie: Tooth whitening can damage your teeth and gums.
The Truth: Teeth whitening systems don’t cause any damage to your teeth or gums. You apply the whitening agent to your teeth and the organic deposits which cause staining or discoloration on the surface of the teeth are removed through oxidation. This process is not harmful to your teeth or gums. However, it is possible that the procedure can cause some very short-lived sensitivity in the teeth. If this is a problem, the effect can be reduced or eliminated simply by shortening the time that the whitening gel spends in contact with your teeth.
Some whitening gels can also cause minor irritation to the gums – this usually happens because the whitening trays used in the procedure are poorly fitted. This is why using an at home tooth whitening system which uses custom-fitted whitening trays is always the best way to go.
Little White Lie #5
The Lie: Whitening strips are the best way to whiten your teeth.
The Truth: Our teeth are as unique as we are. This means that it’s impossible to design a whitening strip which can actually maintain contact with the entire surface of our teeth. Even in a best case scenario, these strips can only help whiten the front surface of your teeth, with grooves in the teeth and the gaps between your teeth left unaffected by the whitening strip. What these strips cause is uneven tooth whitening, leaving a striped appearance, with stains apparent on the parts of the teeth which they don’t cover. Many consider this to actually be worse than the original problem!
Little White Lie #6
The Lie: Thermoform trays are cheaper and work just as well as custom whitening tray.
The Truth: This is just simply not true. Thermoform trays have the same problem as do whitening strips; they don’t take into account the fact that everyone’s teeth are different. After all, you wouldn’t expect someone else’s dentures to fit. Custom whitening trays are designed to perfectly conform to your teeth and as such, they don’t leave behind unwhitened areas like a thermoform tray will, since they stay in contact with your teeth. Custom trays also have the advantage of reducing the possibility of gum irritation, since little to no whitening gel can escape from the tray during the whitening process.
Little White Lie #7
The Lie: Paint on style tooth whiteners are the best way to go since they’re the easiest kind to use.
The Truth: If only it were so easy! These products sound like a good idea, but they have the same problem as whitening toothpastes – your saliva will tend to wash away the whitening agent. These products also usually contain very low concentrations of the active ingredient to prevent irritation to your gums and lips.
There are other products of this type which don’t really whiten at all, being nothing more than a cover-up which does nothing to remove stains.
Little White Lie #8
The Lie: Teeth whitening systems which use electroluminescence in conjunction with a whitening gel work better than systems which only use a gel because of the high-tech light technology activating the ingredients of the gel
The Truth: As it happens, these products are neither new and high tech nor are they effective. Electroluminescence may look impressive, but it’s the same technology used in many children’s toys and to provide back lighting for cell phones. The electroluminescence definitely looks cool, but does nothing to make the whitening agents work better – it is a marketing ploy and nothing but.
Little White Lie #9
The Lie: Tooth bleaching procedures provide everyone with the same results
The Truth: Everyone’s teeth are different and so are the stains which they have. Some stains are more difficult to remove than others with bleaching. Yellowish stains are the easiest to bleach, with brownish stains being somewhat more difficult and grayish stains being more difficult still.
Little White Lie #10
The Lie: Swallowing tooth whitening solutions causes internal injury.
The Truth: There is about a 100% chance that you’ll swallow at least a little bit of tooth whitening gel regardless of which tooth whitening system you choose. It’s not harmful, though it does have an odd taste.
Before you purchase teeth whitening items online please make sure you visit Teeth Whitening Little White Lies to read further lies they tell you and important health and purchase information.Also see more information about the Smile Strips Online