Teeth whitening at home

[Rowan]

Hi

I am considering getting my teeth whitened and wonder if you could tell me if the teeth whitening at home is as good as zoom teeth whitening? My friend has home whitening trays made by his dentist and was very pleased with the results.

Are there any advantages and disadvantages to doing home teeth whitening rather than in surgery whitening? Are there any differences in the end whitening result achieved?

What sort of results can I expect with home teeth whitening? Some sites talk about 8 shades lighter? Is that really achieveable or just cheap talk? For how long do I have to wear the whitening trays?

[Dr Ehsan J. Esfahani]

Hello Rowan,

Thank you for your post.

Home teeth whitening is more effective than zoom teeth whitening. Zoom teeth whitening is a 1 hour procedure and the improvement achieved is less than with the home teeth whitening as this is performed over several hours.

The advantage of home whitening is that it is safe, effective and long lasting. Teeth sensitivity experienced is less and the end whitening result achieved is usually better than with in surgery laser whitening.

If you have healthy teeth and you follow the whitening instructions well and are a little patient you can expect to achieve very nice results with home teeth whitening. 8 shades or more lighter can be achieved with teeth whitening at home and often at Pearl we achieve even better results than that.

You should wear the whitening trays initially for only 2 hours each time. If you experience little or no sensitivity then you should increase the wear time to 3 or 4 hours and keep increasing in 1 hour increments upto 8 hours if you have little or no sensitivity. If you experience sensitivity you should reduce the wear time to 2 hours again or do alternate nights.