Tooth Whitening Strips

A modern lifestyle takes its toll on the body, including the teeth. Delicious red wine, smoking, tea and many other things can stain the teeth. In fact, staining is quite normal and if you compare our teeth to the typical set a person might have in the Middle Ages then we have all made vast improvements. However, there is still the desire to have a nice set of brilliant white teeth. White teeth signify good health and can improve a person’s well-being and levels of self-confidence.

Although there are many types of tooth whitening treatments, one of the more popular of recent times are tooth whitening strips.

Why Strips?

Professional bleaching at your dentist will set you back several hundred dollars. Whitening toothpastes are largely ineffective and many of them are simply abrasive in nature and little else.

Strips, on the other hand, are fairly easy to use and apply and can make your teeth at least one or two shades lighter.

How To Use Them

Strips just look like small pieces of rectangular paper. In the early days, it was recommended to use only two. The obvious drawback of doing this is that when fitted to the upper and lower sets of teeth, they only cover perhaps six teeth each. This leads to the embarrassing problem of revealing darker surrounding teeth when you smile.

Little wonder then that manufacturers were soon recommending that you apply four strips each time, in order to gain almost complete coverage.

Be careful when applying them. Although they should be laid flat against the teeth, you also need to push them into the gaps between your teeth. Otherwise you will obtain a poor result of mostly whitened teeth but with dark gaps between them.

How They Work

Strips contain a low concentration of hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide has long been known as a bleaching agent due to the oxidisation that occurs when it comes into contact with water.

When it comes into contact with your teeth, it has a bleaching effect on the stains. This works for almost all types of teeth staining except where it has occurred on the inside of the tooth (e.g. after a root canal, when the blood supply to the tooth is lost).

Hydrogen peroxide is also the same chemical that is used in a professional setting by a qualified dentist except that he or she will also have access to a special light that will accelerate the process. This light is not available to home users because it could cause skin burning if used incorrectly.