Advice on Teeth Whitening Discussion Thread

Toothsmith

Increase confidence is a wonderful thing. It's just very hard to quantify, and I couldn't offer a 'money back' guarantee with it.

Savvy_Sue

Toothsmith wrote:

It won't loose you 25lbs

Now Miroslav was laughing about this, but I guess if you use a DIY kit and it all goes horribly wrong and all your teeth fall out - you might lose 25lbs! :rotfl:

Not to mention £00s getting some falsies and your gums fixed up by your friendly neighbourhood toothsmith to whom you will have to confess what you did in an attempt to save money!

I'll settle for off-white!

Sheel

My younger daughter is having her teeth whitened at the moment using 10% carbamine peroxide gel and her teeth do look a lot whiter and she hasn't finished the treatment yet. She goes to the dentists at Boots (it's closing soon and moving to Optical Express I believe) and it was on special offer at £199.

I'm going to do a before and after comparison if I can find a photo of her showing her teeth before they were done

And if you keep the trays, the dentist will often supply another syringe or two if you feel the need to 'top them up' from time to time.

I did a stupid thing the other week and threw the trays out as I thought she'd finished the treatment and she hadn't , which cost me £40 to replace them

Swattie

How do you rate the off the shelf tooth whitening kits from the likes of Boots?

I would assume that the active ingredients are fairly mild if they can be sold off-the-shelf and I would also assume that Boots have done loads of research and testing to ensure the kits are effective (I wouldn't expect the same results as a pro job) and safe and do not damage teeth.


A word of advice for those of you considering professional whitening at the dentists - I went for treatment and ended up with a chemical burn in my mouth - so, despite all the precautions things can go wrong.

That's why I'm more interested in off the shelf products with a lower strength.

Toothsmith

Swattie wrote:

How do you rate the off the shelf tooth whitening kits from the likes of Boots?.

I think they're a bit expensive for what they achieve. As I said in my 'dissertation' They aren't bad at removing stain, which can give a whiter appearance. Probably better to arrange a hygienist visit though, as that would get the same effect, but with plaque & tartar removed as well.

Swattie wrote:

I would assume that the active ingredients are fairly mild if they can be sold off-the-shelf.

True

Swattie wrote:

and I would also assume that Boots have done loads of research and testing to ensure the kits are effective (I wouldn't expect the same results as a pro job) and safe and do not damage teeth.

Possibly loads of reasearch to check it's harmless, but if only effective things were allowed to be put on the shelves, there would be a huge drop in the amount of stuff for sale in all shops

Swattie wrote:

A word of advice for those of you considering professional whitening at the dentists - I went for treatment and ended up with a chemical burn in my mouth - so, despite all the precautions things can go wrong.

That's why I'm more interested in off the shelf products with a lower strength.

That's why I'm not fond of powerbleaching. The vast majority of the time it's fine, but if something does go wrong, it's not nice. It seems to me to be a bit of a risk with your professional reputation. I think you're going from one end of the spectrum to the other a bit quickly though. Did the powerbleaching not work at all? Despite the burn? Did the dentist not suggest the gel system as an alternative? What did he say about the burn?

Downsizing__for_sanity

I would have loved to have my teeth whitened for my wedding last year, but as you can imagine, we were paying lots of money out for other things and it fell off the bottom of my priorities. What I DID do, however, is go to the hygienist for a "scale and polish", and this was great. Mouth felt like it was super clean, teeth lovely and white. I'm going to have one at least every year from now, as well as using my electric toothbrush.

Toothsmith - lovely to have some professional advice, rather than 2nd/3rd hand advice from people who say stuff like "Well I went out with a dental nurse once and she said.." (Look, I don't mean any of you on THIS forum, before people get upset with me!! I just mean it's nice to have a professional opinion!)

DFS

Dunkyboy_2

I bought a whitening kit off e-bay, it was the 19% one, and i followed the instructions carefully, and the product worked perfectly.
My teeth were quite sensative for a few days after, (especially on cold drinks) but it was worth it, my teeth were much whiter and it has lasted for ages.
I think i paid about £100 quid, the e-bay seller had loads of info and links on the subject which i read, (including the disclaimer).
But i wouldn't recommend anyone trying out the full strenght kit, go for the middle one first and see how you get on.

Toothsmith

Dunkyboy wrote:

I bought a whitening kit off e-bay, it was the 19% one, and i followed the instructions carefully, and the product worked perfectly.
My teeth were quite sensative for a few days after, (especially on cold drinks) but it was worth it, my teeth were much whiter and it has lasted for ages.
I think i paid about £100 quid, the e-bay seller had loads of info and links on the subject which i read, (including the disclaimer).
But i wouldn't recommend anyone trying out the full strenght kit, go for the middle one first and see how you get on.

:wall: :wall:

ribenagirl

Toothsmith wrote:

:wall: :wall:

roflmao!!!!! <

---

(see, nice white shiny teefs ! )

robowen

Hey..Dunkyboy...take no notice of old Toothy here !!

He's trying to hijack my thread to get more business for the so called professionals. :doh:

I'm glad yours worked for you. I'm not sure I have tried mine often enough to have any effect just yet.

For anyone interested....this is the stuff I got :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31771&item=4379562003&rd=1

Read through the feedback.
Firstly, don't look at the majority of them, as they say "quick delivery" etc etc. "gonna try it tomorrow" etc etc

Look at the ones that have tried it. :j

To save you time looking at the negs, the last 3 were around 20th nov 2004, one bloke changed his mind and refused to pay, the other one posted after 3 days....like me didn't give it chanc e to work. 1 neutral said he had difficulty with making the gum shield.

I think that if this bloke had had loads of problems and burns etc etc ...it would have shown on the feedback.

Anyway.....like I said.....this thread is for people who have had experiences with the DIY kits. and I would like to hear about them. :j

If Toothy don't like it ....professional advice is always welcome in the Health Board !


rob