Teeth whitening is one of the most popular cosmetic dental treatments available, and can produce beautiful, aesthetic results in a short amount of time. Whiter teeth can help boost your confidence, leaving you feeling happier and more self-assured when you smile. But with so many different treatments on the market, it can be hard to know where to start or which might be best for you. In this blog post, we break down the best options for teeth whitening.
Teeth whitening treatments use a bleaching agent to safely penetrate the enamel of the teeth and gently whiten the teeth. With at-home treatments, the bleaching agent is delivered via a gel and applied to the teeth using teeth whitening trays so that the gums remain protected. In-clinic treatments use a higher-strength bleaching agent and are usually followed by an LED light treatment to speed up the whitening process.
Discolouration of the teeth is fairly common and often happens due to the things we eat and drink daily, as well as because of ageing or simply genetics. Tea, coffee, red wine, heavily coloured foods such as curries and berries, and smoking can all cause your teeth to discolour over time. There are also some medications and medical conditions that can contribute to discolouration of the teeth, and not taking care of your overall oral health can also be a factor.
Choosing to whiten your teeth is a completely personal decision. As a cosmetic treatment, there’s no clinical need to whiten your teeth, but it really can brighten your smile and boost your confidence in a matter of a few weeks. At North Down Dental, we love to help our patients feel good about their smiles, and we’ve found that teeth whitening is a really fast, effective, and easy way to transform a smile and help patients feel better about their teeth.
If you’re using dentist-approved and prescribed treatments, then teeth whitening is completely safe. You might experience some sensitivity when first using teeth whitening, but we can help manage this by recommending specially formulated teeth whitening treatments or a sensitive toothpaste. You will not experience any damage to the gums or enamel, and your teeth will look whiter, with fewer surface stains after use.
There are teeth whitening treatments available from pharmacies, salons, online, or even TikTok trends, but we do not recommend using them. This is because not only are they less effective, with lower concentrations of bleaching agents, but they can also damage the teeth or gums and trigger sensitivity.
The main differences between using a dentist-approved at-home treatment or an in-clinic teeth whitening treatment is the time taken to produce results and the cost. In-clinic treatments are usually more expensive up-front, but can produce results after less than an hour in the chair.
At-home dentist-approved treatments are more cost-effective for the patient and produce results within two weeks of first use. If you’re using a dentist-prescribed treatment, whether at home or in-clinic, they are both perfectly safe and won’t cause any damage or destruction to your tooth enamel.
At North Down Dental in Bangor, we use teeth whitening treatments from Boutique Whitening and White Dental Beauty. In both cases, we will supervise your teeth whitening treatment from the practice, but you will undertake the whitening yourself at home.
White Dental Beauty offers a range of different ways to whiten the teeth, including strips and gels. With Boutique Whitening, we will fit you for your custom-made whitening trays here in the practice, and you’ll be able to wear them and your Boutique Whitening gel at home for two weeks. In both cases, it’s easy to top up your whitening when you feel like your smile could do with being a little brighter again.
Get in touch with the team at North Down Dental in Bangor today, and you could be showing off your brighter, whiter smile in just a few short weeks! Don’t just take our word for it – see what our patients are saying about their smile transformations on Google Reviews.
