Teeth Whiteners Compared - The Many roads to a Brighter Smile

How do I pick the best teeth whitener solution for me?

Although there are many products and offers on the market promising a brighter, whiter smile, basically they all fall into 3 basic categories. By selecting which category best fits your needs and budget, it then becomes much easier to select the best teeth whiteners solution.

The three basic groups of teeth whitener solutions are:

1. Go to a professional cosmetic dentist. This is by far the best solution if there's any question about the quality or condition of your teeth. Teeth whiteners are designed for teeth in good condition. That is, no cavities or other serious problems.

The dentist will typically use stronger gels and products to whiten your teeth faster. So another benefit to visiting your dentist to get a teeth whitening procedure done is that the results will be apparent much faster. The major downside to this option is cost. It's not unreasonable to expect to pay over 500 dollars for the treatments and additional costs for the occasional touch-up during the year.

2. Option number 2 are teeth whitener kits. These come in a number of offerings but are basically a form that you fit to your teeth that holds a whitener gel in contact with the tooth surfaces. The gel, although not typically as strong as those found at the local dentist office, it is usually of good quality and the results can be seen fairly rapidly.

Another benefit of this option is that there's no need to schedule an appointment. If your like most, trying to fit in yet another appointment is difficult to say the least. With a home teeth whitener kit, you pick the time most convenient to you. The major negative to this solution is that it will take a little bit longer to get to maximum brightness and whiteness. This is due to the safer whitener gels. For a high quality kit with custom fitted mouth trays and good gel, expect to pay under 200 dollars for the complete kit. The big benefit with teeth whitener kits is they offer maximum results at the lowest cost and are convenient. The negative is the quality teeth whitener kits are usually ordered on the web and take a few days for delivery.

3. The third option is the local store bought whitestrips and whitening toothpastes. Understand that these do work to a degree. They will not however whiten yellowed teeth from yellow to bright white over night. They just don't have the ingredients necessary to attain maximum smile brightness. They can however, make your teeth look better fast. The whitestrips are like a tape that adheres to your front teeth and using whitening agents imbedded in the tape work to whiten your teeth. They only whiten where they touch however. Whitening toothpastes typically have baking soda or some other gentle cleaning/bleaching agent as part of the toothpaste recipe. It's more for minor stains and helping to keep bright smiles whiter after they've been brought up to their brightest. The big benefit here is the cost is typically under 30 dollars to get started. The only negative is they're not nearly as effective as the other options.

So the bottom line is that there are 3 basic options to whitening your teeth and smile. Once this has been decided. it's much easier to then select from the products offered.