I’ve been wanting to do a smile makeover for a while. Recently, I received an offer in the mail for Premium Home Whitening. Then, I received a Groupon offer for the same thing. It is less than what my dentist charges. I was wondering if it will really work or if I will be wasting my money.
Katherine
Dear Katherine,
I looked into this. There are some good and bad things about this. First the good. The whitening ingredient they use is 35% carbamide peroxide. This is a valid whitening ingredient and will whiten your teeth. That is great. Now for the less than good news. The light they advertise seems bogus. This makes me uncomfortable with the company. If they are willing to lie to patients to draw them in, how do we know their ingredients are what they say they are? I don’t like deception.
A second thing to consider is the whitening tray. When you get teeth whitening done with your dentist, he or she will prepare custom fitted trays. This both protects your gums for being irritated by the whitening gel as well as keeps the gel concentrated on your teeth by not leaking or by letting saliva in to dilute it.
The tray you get with this will not be not be custom fit. Instead, it will sort of fit. However, your saliva will weaken the gel meaning you won’t get as much whitening out of each kit as you would with your dentist.
You mentioned the price was more than your dentist, but did not say how much more. One thing I would do is tell your dentist how much the kit is and ask him if he can come close to that so you will be able to do the procedure with him under a professional’s care. My guess is if he is not willing to, some dentist will be.
If you are thinking about improving your smile, teeth whitening will make you and your teeth look younger. If you are looking for a complete smile makeover, the way to do that is with porcelain veneers. However, while teeth whitening can be done with any dentist, porcelain veneers require an expert cosmetic dentist. If you decide to go that route, my suggestion is you only do that with a dentist who is AACD accredited.
This blog is brought to you by Philadelphia Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Michael Weiss.