While both of these teeth bleaching approaches can offer similar whitening results there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to each of them. Our pages should be able to help you determine which bleaching method seems the best fit for you. Additionally, our whitening systems review describes the various steps your dentist takes when performing professional in-office teeth whitening treatments and the rational regarding why (or why not) the use of a bleaching light or laser should be incorporated into the whitening process. Our pages also discuss the costs, whitening results, and common side effects associated with this professional whitening procedures. Our review of professional teeth whitening systems outlines some of the specific whitening products your dentist has to choose from including: Zoom! ®, Opalescence ®, BriteSmile ®, LaserSmile ™, Rembrandt ®, LumaArch ™, and Niveous ™.
No doubt the number one question people reading our pages will have is: Which is best, having professional teeth whitening treatments performed by your dentist or using an at-home whitener? While the information found on our pages can help you to arrive at an answer we'd first like to say that using the word "best" really is not the best way to phrase this question. Here's why...
Peroxide-based teeth whitening is generally considered to be a function of two factors:
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Cosmetic dentistry makeovers.
In Animated-Teeth.com's cosmetic dentistry smile makeover section we take pictures people have sent in and illustrate for them what kind of results a cosmetic dentistry makeover might produce. Use the links below to see some of our dental makeovers that incorporate teeth whitening into the treatment plan.
Smile makeover #1 |
This implies (and this may come as a surprise to you) that in order to produce the same degree of lightening, a teeth whitening system can either employ a low concentration whitener for an extended period of time (the method utilized by at-home teeth whitening products) or else a higher concentration whitener for a comparatively shorter period of time (the method used by professional teeth whitening treatments performed by dentists).
And while our following pages will have more to say about each of these approaches, the crux of the matter is that both at-home whitening (especially tray-based) and professional teeth bleaching systems can generally produce the same whitening outcome. Neither method is necessarily "best." |
Because of this you may already be familiar with or have a specific question about a particular whitening brand and its equipment. Here is a list of the professional whitening products we discuss on our pages and links to more information about each of them. (If the whitening system makes use of a bleaching light or laser, we have included the type of light in parentheses next to the product's name.)
BriteSmile ® (gas plasma light/light emitting diode), Zoom! ™ (metal halide light), LaserSmile ™ (a Biolase ® laser), LumaArch ™ (halogen light), Rembrandt ® Sapphire ™ (plasma arc light), Opalescence ® Xtra ® Boost ™, NUPRO ® White Gold / Illumine , Niveous ™
Let's ask our original question again: Which is best, at-home or professional teeth whitening treatments? As you can see we have still used the word "best" in our sentence even though we already know that both whitening approaches can typically be used to achieve similar results. This time, however, let's investigate answering this question in terms of which method is best in the sense that it best fits in with your lifestyle.
Comparing professional teeth bleaching with at-home teeth whitening treatments.Professional teeth whitening refers to a technique where a whitener is applied to your teeth by your dentist in their dental office. In contrast, at-home teeth whitening is a process where the dental patient takes the bleaching materials home with them and performs their bleaching treatments on their own, unsupervised.At-home teeth bleaching typically requires that the product user performs whitening treatments each day, over a series of weeks. In comparison, the number of professional teeth bleaching treatments that are performed is typically much fewer in number, possibly even as few as one. It has been suggested that, as a ballpark estimate, one hour of in-office whitening treatment can produce the same whitening effect as one to two weeks of at-home tray-based whitening. |
More information about at-home and professional teeth whitening here on Animated-Teeth.com.
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Here are some characteristics of professional and at-home teeth whitening systems...
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What's the best teeth whitening system for you?Which method seems to be the best fit with your lifestyle? Are you long on time and short on money? If so, it sounds like at-home teeth whitening might be the best choice.Do you have a big event coming up soon that you want to transform your smile for or maybe you just don't think you can incorporate do-it-yourself whitening treatments into your busy lifestyle? If this is the case then it seems that professional treatment performed by your dentist might be the best solution. |