The Teeth Whitening Procedure

When your teeth are dulled, yellow, and stained, you can choose between professional teeth whitening in your dentist’s office or at-home whitening kits. Both use the same type of ingredients just in varying degrees. At home kits range from three percent peroxide content to 20 percent peroxide content, whereas professional solutions used at your dentist’s office range from 15 to 43 percent. The dental office is much faster, but it also costs more.

If you choose to use at-home kits instead of having a professional job done, keep in mind a few points. Although the longer you keep the solution on your teeth, the whiter they will become, the amount of peroxide can cause problems if you aren’t careful. When you have a solution with a high peroxide content, you are opening up your teeth to several problems, including dehydration and sensitivity.

Teeth whitening by your dentist will be a much faster process. Not only are they using professional tools and will clean your teeth properly before whitening them, they also use a solution with a higher peroxide concentration.

You can use whitening strips and gels at home. These kits are not cheap but they are much less expensive than the professional in-office tooth whitening procedure. Your dentist may charge between $500 and $1200. The kits can be anywhere from five dollars to forty. Of course, the results of at-home kits are not near those achieved from the dentist’s treatment.