If you've been following my posts, you are probably asking yourself what the difference is between whitening at home with an over the counter product or seeing a dentist for whitening. After all, these products whiten your teeth using the same chemicals. So whats the difference? Lets break it down:
Mechanism of Whitening - Basically the same. See my previous posts to learn how these products whiten your teeth. Sometimes various brands will contain other chemicals that will act as desensitizers, but I'll save my take on these for another post.
Concentration of Active Ingredients - The in-office whitening is almost always much more potent than the stuff you can buy over the counter. This will probably always be the case, though over the counter whitening products are becoming stronger and stronger.
Speed of Whitening - Hands down in-office whitening products win. Due to the caustic nature of their high concentration active chemicals and catalysts (ie the light in ZOOM whitening), special barriers must be placed by dental professionals on the soft parts of your mouth so no adverse reactions occur. The upside to this is the high concentration of hydogen peroxide on your teeth will allow you to achieve a level of whiteness in 45 minutes or so that would require weeks with the OTC stuff.
Amount/Number of Teeth Whitened - Lets face it, we all don't have Hollywood smiles, and our teeth may not line up in perfect neat little rows of ivory. Teeth can be tilted in, tilted out, and even partially rotated. When this is the case, its sometimes difficult to orient a whitening strip on your front teeth that will follow all of their dips and turns. Moreover, though the whitening strips only cover your six front teeth, many people show more than these six teeth when they smile. The solution to both issues lies in the customized plastic tray that you can get at a dental office, and this is a big selling point for in office whitening.
Level of Whiteness Achieved - Hypothetically, any over the counter whitening product containing the proper active ingredients should be able to make your teeth just as white as in-office whitening will. However, the length of time it may take these weaker products to whiten some tougher stains to that high level may be more than people are willing to put up with. We're talking many months of daily whitening instead of one or two dental office visits. Furthermore, in a few cases the lower concentration of whitener in these OTC products is simply not enough to whiten the tougher stains as effectively.
These differences aren't the whole story, though, and I'll discuss this comparison further in my next post.
-DRS
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