re: What's the best home teeth whitening?

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ETA: and I’m pretty sure doing this too much is horrible for your teeth.


Dentist here: it’s not actually bleach, more like a peroxide and it’s totally safe. If a patient wants an in office weekly application we hook them up with a discount and go. The key to real whitening is patience and consistency - Multiple applications over time. I’d say 30 mins daily for 8 weeks. Some go twice a week for years, not one visit or one miracle Facebook charcoal coconut oil bullshite. That truly is dangerous by being extremely abrasive to your enamel and there’s not one study done on coconut oil.

I usually tell my patients to try the crest white strips, some people get good results for less than $100. If that’s not of interest, get custom fitting trays and gel. We do it for $99. Some may charge up to $500.

Nobody will get amazing results if you’re already starting with average teeth. Hollywood white teeth are actually thin porcelain shells cemented to the front of the teeth, called veneers.

If you’re starting from very dark teeth or have some developmental staining like from tetracycline exposure during the calcification stages of teeth early in life, you can have great results with a system called KOR MAX. It’s expensice but totally worth it if they’re bad to begin with ($700-1200).

Otherwise, you’re only getting a few shades lighter with 1-3 applications and it’s pretty temporary, so don’t spend $800 on some marketing bullshite. Get custom trays and gel that is 15, 22, or 35% and do it CONSISTENTLY. And most importantly, have your teeth professionally cleaned first otherwise the gel will not get past the salivary proteins and funk embedded in your enamel surface. And ask for a relief desensitizer if you get zingers/sensitivity. It’s basically fluoride gel but helps a ton, with Advil.

Good luck

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