Question:
What is the best way to get whiter teeth? I thought about buying the Crest
Strips but they are $40. Someone I know sucks on lemmons to whiten her
teeth but I don't know if I can handle that. She also puts bleech on a
Q-tip and bleaches her teeth but I am hesitant to try that. I just thought
about the Crest Strips only. What about laser whitening? Is that costly?
Answer:
is a troll, but I will go ahead and answer this anyway. Crest
Whitestrips work great (speaing from personal experience). Lemons will
eat away at tooth enamel (ditto) and chlorine bleach is unsafe to ingest
unless heavily diluted.
The Crest strips (or other brands) are probably the cheapest way to go.
(Whitening toothpaste is also fairly cheap, but it doesn't do much.)
You really need to be careful about this, it's fairly easy to damage
your tooth enamel and that's fairly irreversible without major
reconstruction. The tray systems you can buy over the counter need to
be used very carefully or they can cause damage. You can get more
significant changes more safely by going to your dentist and getting
professional treatment, but you'll pay for that.
One thing to consider is why are your teeth yellowed or stained in the
first place? If you have stains from cigarettes, coffee, coke, etc.
then whitening works pretty well. If you just have yellowish teeth
naturally, then it's less effective. I've thought about doing one of
those over the counter treatments, but I've always had yellowish teeth,
so I doubt I'd get a lot of effect from them. They work much better if
your teeth have darkened from the effects of foods and drinks.
If you have fillings or other dental work in your front teeth, the
bleach will either not affect them at all or make them darker instead of
whiter.
Too much bleaching will destroy your teeth. So will too much acid,
so don't even think about soaking your teeth in stuff like lemon juice
for extended periods of time. I recall seeing photos of the teeth of
a guy who decided it was a good idea to gargle with soda pop
every morning. His teeth were a disgusting mess of black and
yellow forms with oddly colored snot like stuff hanging on his
gums.
I had to get a bunch of fillings after years of neglecting my teeth.
Now I'm a tooth cleaning fanatic. I don't believe any of the
inexpensive over the counter whitening stuff (say under $40) is
worth the trouble and I never tried the more expensive stuff. I do
find that using lots of dentists' approved cleaning tools on a
regular basis is useful. I use:
*A water pick -- not the one that shoots water but the one
you can use to clean between teeth with little nylon flossers.
I hear the water shooting pick is pretty good at cleaning too.
$12 intial investment, then $5 a month (if you are clever
enough to clean and reuse the floss attachments more
than once.)
*Dental floss -- Around $2 a month?
*A scraper (a hook shaped tool made of aluminum) to attack
any hint of plaque. Followed up by filing with little disposable
plastic files. And an oral mirror. Check behind front teeth!
One time investment of around $5
*Gumline cleaner - rubber point on a stick. Used on the
gums like the scraper is used on the teeth. Maybe $3 max.
*Little toothbrush thingy -- sorry I don't know the name for it
but it allows you to brush the little valleys between teeth
well. $4 every 2 months.
*Big toothbrushes -- I have to replace mine every ~3 months?
Don't know the exact frequency but I don't let them get worn
out completely anymore. $2-$4 bucks each.
*Electric tootbrush -- These things aren't really any more useful
than a regular toothbrush but I find that the vibrating makes
for a better gum massager than a plain tooth brush.
$15-$20 initial investment.
*Listerine. After cleaning with all of the above (well sometimes
I skip flossing, because I'm too lazy and the pick makes
it less necessary) I gargle with Listerine and for 30 seconds.
$10 a month.
I do all of this after breakfast, lunch and dinner. I rinse
my mouth out with water after eating anything if I know I
can't get to the full cleaning right away. And I never, ever
avoid brushing after eating something that is sticky. Ever
look in your mouth after eating something like chocolate
chip cookies? You should ;)
Now all of the above ain't going to make your teeth that
much whiter but it should keep them from getting any less
white than they already are.
I've tried using the more expensive toothpastes and I
really don't think there's any significant difference across
the brands provided you get something that claims to
have "whitning". You can check the ingredient mixtures
and you'll find not much difference too.
Anyhow, I figure that all the money I spend on oral
hygenie is going to save me a lot of money and
pain down the road.
