Teeth Whitening Products

Teeth whitening products all basically have the same goal - to penetrate deep into your tooth enamel to rid it of stains. Tooth enamel is porous, so brushing and scouring products don't work, and this is where tooth whitening products come into play. You see they actually use bleaching chemicals to penetrate deep into the tooth enamel. They set off an oxidising process that breaks down the staining compounds in the enamel leaving you with bright white teeth.

Sounds simple, but there are many products on the market that fall short of promises. Most over-the-counter products only ever manage to whiten teeth marginally, while the more professional products can provide you with extreme changes to the whiteness of your teeth.

The entry-level teeth whitening product would be a whitening toothpaste, with whitening strips being next in line. Some people have demonstrated a slight improvement in brightness, but because a toothpaste isn't exposed to your teeth for very long it isn't able to penetrate deep enough to have much effect. Also because whitening toothpastes are exposed to the entire oral cavity, they simply cannot include much of the targeted chemical ingredients required to oxidise and cleanse the enamel. On the other hand, toothpastes and strips can use quite potent chemicals that actually act as abrasive that etch away the enamel, which is definitely an undesirable side-effect.

At the other end of the spectrum we have bleach-based tooth whitening products. These include professional strength bleaching gel and custom fitted bleaching trays, exactly the same as many dentists use. They are completely safe and many dentists consider this whitening process the safest cosmetic procedure available today. Basically, you apply some whitening gel to the bleaching tray and then put the tray in your mouth. Depending on which tooth whitening product you use, the tray needs to stay in your mouth from between 30mins and all day / overnight.

With a good system like DIRECT WHITE, almost everyone will have noticeable results within 4-5 days. Teeth do vary from person to person and some teeth will take more time to whiten. Also, a monthly 'maintenance' application is usually recommended to keep teeth constantly white and bright.