Best Teeth Whitening Methods in 2022
Teeth whitening is properly one of the easiest way to uplift someone’s smile. There are several options for you to choose depending on your own preference as well as your teeth’s characteristics. Today we go over some of the more popular choices:
- Crest whitening strip: with 6.5% Hydrogen Peroxide, this is a safe choice to start with. My aunt loves this product so much. If I want to gift her something, this is an obvious choice. Less sensitivity (due to low content of hydrogen peroxide), easy to use, and easy to buy. However it will take longer to work its magic (also due to low percentage of the main whitening ingredient). If you have extremely sensitive teeth, start with this. If you can tolerate this product, then you can consider a higher percentage product as you wish.
- Opalescent Go tray: available in 10% and 15% Hydrogen Peroxide with either mint or melon flavor. In my own opinion, the result is better than the Crest whitening strip after 10-day treatment. This Go tray product is also very easy to use and easy to get. For people with very sensitive teeth, they can do the whitening every other day instead of everyday. After the initial 10-day course, every few months you can use it again for 1 to 2 days to maintain the result. This is the product of choice at Avalon since we got a lot of good feedbacks from our patients and we always have it in stock at Avalon for patients to purchase.
- Customized bleach tray: comes together with 35% carbamide peroxide gel, this is the robust product of the family. With your personal trays, we ensure the product staying on your teeth and not diluting by saliva. We will take impression of your teeth, then fabricate your bleaching trays that fit your teeth like a glove. The diference between Carbamide peroxide and Hydrogen peroxide is the way it works. Hydrogen Peroxide breaks down faster so it works best in the first 30-60min. Carbamide Peroxide will release only 50% of its power in the first 2 hours and remain active for up to six additional hours. For this reason, we recommend this option to patients with darker greyish shade that doesn’t respond well to other whitening product.
- In-office whitening: Maybe I am selfish, but I am not recommending this to the majority of my patients. It is a very helpful option sometimes, like if you are getting married in about a week and don’t have time for 2-week bleaching tray. We usually have to use up to 45% peroxide to whitening your teeth in 90 minutes. During that time you have to stay still and open your mouth (we do have cheek retractor to help with this but it is still uncomfortable). The result is the same between this and the 2-week treatment course but the sensitivity is way more. I had this done before and it was like getting electric shock every 10 seconds for 24 hours after the treatment. Driving and pumping into a pothole? Hearing noise like fingers on the chalk board? They both triggered the sensitivity and it drove me crazy. Maybe your experience will be better than me, but that’s the norm that I saw when I used to offer this to my patients.
- Other charcoal/baking soda whitening products: although it is the trend right now, it hasn’t been researched properly and most of the research result is meh. Did you know bentonite clay in those “charcoal toothpaste” has a high percentage of lead and other heavy metal in it? I didn’t until my hygienist shared an article with me. Crazy right?
Did we cover your favorite whitening method? Any other whitening method out there that you want to know our opinion? We would love to know what works and doesn’t work with you on your teeth whitening journey.