Hi, my name is Dr Warren Antonoff from Lifestyle Smiles here at Brighton in Melbourne. Everyday our patients ask me, I want whiter teeth, I want teeth whitening, what is the best option for me? Since it’s such a popular topic, I thought I’d make a video and share with you my thoughts regarding the best way to whiten your teeth.
Now, coming from a dentist, this might not come as a surprise to you, but whitening your teeth with the professional guidance from a dentist is probably the most important advice I could give. The reality is if you jump into teeth whitening but you have a lot of problems with your teeth and you don’t know about it, you may run into some serious issues later down the track. So make sure you have a dental checkup and a professional clean prior to any whitening procedure.
Now, when it comes to teeth whitening, there are 2 main methods. In-chair whitening, vs take-home whitening.
When it comes to in-chair whitening, the procedure is very quick, it takes approximately 1-hour duration from start to finish, and you can expect to walk out of the dental chair with whiter teeth immediately. It’s suitable for gaggers, who struggle to put anything in their mouth, or for those who are time-poor, for example, if they have a wedding coming up on the weekend and they need their teeth whiter immediately. Or those who simply don’t have the discipline to wear their take-home whitening tray on a day to day basis.
In-chair whitening is generally not recommended for those who have super high expectations or who have really white teeth already. And because in-chair whitening is very potent and can cause temporary sensitivity of teeth for up to 1-2 days, if you already have sensitive teeth, this might not be your treatment of choice.
On the other hand, take-home whitening is really good to maintain and improve the colour of your teeth in a more controlled fashion. You basically follow the dentist’s instructions, and whiten your teeth every day for anywhere between 1 hour, to wearing the take-home tray overnight when you sleep. You may still get some temporary teeth sensitivity but usually, that is very mild and dissipates quickly.
Now as for how long you need to do it for? Well, it’s like, how long is a piece of string, it depends on how yellow your teeth are, and how white you want your teeth to become. Usually, a typical course of take-home whitening takes about 2-4 weeks, and you’re expected to see some fairly good results.
So as you can see, depending on your situation, you may be more suitable for take-home whitening, or in-chair whitening, or you might like to do in chair whitening first and get a really rapid head start, and then keep going with take-home whitening until you are happy with your results. Every case is different.
Regardless of which method you chose, one important thing to remember is, teeth whitening will vary from individual to individual, although it is generally speaking the most cost-effective way to upgrade your smile, and you can expect the colour of your teeth to improve, don’t expect a Hollywood white smile as a guaranteed result.
