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Some alternatives to teeth whitenings (although for sure you will not get the same results) could be whitening toothpaste that are on the counter or just simply putting some baking soda on your toothpaste and brushing your teeth. I'm not a big fan of whitening toothpaste because a lot of times they can cause sensitivity because of the abrasiveness of the toothpaste. So you're better off just using regular baking soda a couple of times a week.
Some alternatives to teeth whitenings (although for sure you will not get the same results) could be whitening toothpaste that are on the counter or just simply putting some baking soda on your toothpaste and brushing your teeth. I'm not a big fan of whitening toothpaste because a lot of times they can cause sensitivity because of the abrasiveness of the toothpaste. So you're better off just using regular baking soda a couple of times a week.
The biggest problem with teeth whitening is that it causes sensitivity. And I remember even myself when I did the first treatment of teeth whitening several years ago, I had so much sensitivity the next day I couldn't even breathe in air. So I was really looking even from a personal standpoint, as well as for my patients, for something that's safer. Let's talk about some of the treatments that are available over the counter. So we have different trays that actually are not meant (customized) for your mouth and we also have the white strips that some of you probably have tried. The biggest complaint I heard about the white strips is that it could cause some gingival or gum sloughing off, and the gums become really red - meaning you actually have a burning of the gum. Luckily, today we have a 20 minute tooth whitening treatment. It's laser-based that causes zero sensitivity and we have very high success rate with that.
Other methods of whitening teeth are, for example, tooth whitening, dentifrices, or it could be baking soda. I'm not a big fan of toothpaste or a whitening toothpaste because it can cause a lot of sensitivity, especially if you use it twice a day. For example, baking soda could be actually very good to give you like a little pick-up of your beautiful bright smile. The easiest way to use baking soda to give you a brighter smile is just to simply take the baking soda powder and sprinkle it on your toothbrush together with toothpaste or it could be by itself. Research shows that tooth whitening is safe and doesn't hurt the enamle, although it can cause some sensitivity - this is usually transient. Teeth whitening with the more modern advancement in this process is not painful at all. However, some of the older processes can actually cause sensitivity even while you're in the dental chair. Ask your dentist a little bit more about what kind of system do they have? Is it laser teeth whitening or is it a different system? Because every system is so different and you might want to do some research yourself about that particular system that your dentist has.
To maintain teeth whitening results, it is important to maintain a white diet, especially the first 72 hours following teeth whitening as the enamel is porous during that time and it can pick up actually more stains. So things to avoid are red wine, colas, coffee, tea, even dark-stained fruits such as tomatoes, plums, cherries, blueberries - these can actually also stain teeth.
In order to maintain your teeth whitening results, it is important that you follow up with maintenance treatments. There's really two products for maintenance. One is the customizable trays, which are made for you. And the second is a bleaching pen, which is really just like a lip gloss, with a little brush at the end, which you can paint over your teeth, really on a weekly basis to maintain the nice bright white smile. A good analogy for keeping or maintaining results would be, for example, like going to the car wash. If you've gone to the car wash, you know, you can get some dust in your car immediately thereafter, and you can easily take a rag at home and you can actually wipe the dust clean from the car. Same thing with your smile.
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