Beauty Bits: What’s The Deal With Teeth Whitening Strips?
Whitening strips, teeth whitening gel, whitening pens… if you’re being honest you will probably admit to using any of these at any given point in time. I know I sure have! But generally, my teeth kind of hurt a little bit for a few days afterwards. It got me to thinking, maybe this is not so good for me?
Now, I don’t know about y’all but with all the commercials about “our whitening strip is better”! “No! Our gel is!” Sometimes it is difficult to just cut through the nonsense and rhetoric and sales pitch.
Of course, I knew I could turn to my dentist friend Dr. Samer Othman to answer my questions about this.
MIWM: So, tell me, what’s the deal with white strips from the grocery store? What do they actually DO?
SO: The whitening strips in the grocery store use a chemical called carbemide peroxide to bleach your teeth. The most common formulation of over the counter whitening strips is a 14% concentration of the active ingredient.
MIWM:I’m guilty of using these when I may or may not have waited too long to see my dentist, is there a chance that maybe getting better about seeing a dentist on time might eliminate the need for these white strips for some people?
SO: They work well for those who have had whitening in the past and only need to “refresh” their teeth, or for those that don’t mind using whitening products for a little longer period of time.
MIWM: What’s the difference in what white strips do and what an actual in the dentist office whitening procedure does?
SO: The whitening trays made in dental offices fit the teeth much better than the strips or trays that come in boxes, which allows for a much more uniform bleaching of the teeth. Formulations available to our patients are 16%, 22%, and 32% carbemide peroxide. These higher concentrations allow you to achieve a whiter, brighter smile in a fraction of the time that it takes with traditional whitening strips. The sensitivity associated with the products offered in dental offices is actually much less as well, since they have desensitizing agents built in to them, which is something you will not be able to find in the over-the-counter products.
Basically…. I need to just go ahead and and pay for the real thing and stop cheating. Which, isn’t that what I preach anyway? Exactly.
Welp- I’ll be doing some blogging on my marketing business site: www.thehypgroup.com this week as well about all of the cool things I have learned at the 2014 Digital Summit in Atlanta! So feel free to check it out.
Love to all y’all,
Molly
