Has anyone tried any of the readily available teeth whitening things out there, like those new strips and whatnot? What’s your interpretation? Do they work or no? I’ve been using whitening toothpaste for about three years now, and the only times I notice my teeth looking whiter than before is when I haven’t brushed for about a day or two. I have naturally yellow teeth, and I’m not all that concerned about it, but I wouldn’t mind if they looked a little whiter.
I’ve used Natural White, where you put the gel in the mouthguard and keep it against your teeth for 20 minutes. It works famously.
<insert bright smile here>
Don’t get sucked into the advertising. Go to your dentist and get a good cleaning and polishing. Not everybody has bleach white teeth, and making them into bleach white teeth is not a good idea IMHO.
I use Plus White, which has the mouthguard thing, but it’s spongy so it forms to your teeth, and it only takes 5 minutes. It cost less than $10 for the starter kit and the gel by itself is $3.
I’ve heard that the strips aren’t worth the price, $35, because they only whiten the front teeth.
I recommend Brite Smile available at discriminating dentists for about $500, about an hour and a half.
Hmmm. The toothpaste or the gel stuff works for me. Plus White gel or Sensodyne with whitener. Sensodyne has interesting stuff in it.
The strips worked for me. They’re easy to use and convenient. My top teeth were noticeably whiter when I did a comparison, but they weren’t neon white like some people’s teeth get after (over)using these products. They only work on the front teeth, but no one sees the fronts of my back teeth so I don’t care. If you have a smile like Olivia Newton-John’s or the Osmonds, then go for the trays.
BTW, start out with the cheaper strips if you have any problems with sensitive teeth. My SIL got the type you get from the dentist, paid a fortune for it, then realized her teeth was too sensitive to use it.
Here’s an article that ran in Slate a few days ago…
hmm.
maybe it’s just me, but i don’t care for the look of whitened teeth at all. it’s one thing to have naturally light/clean looking teeth (they look nice). but so many whitened teeth have this utterly artificial whiteness to them (i’ve even seen some that were blue-white. :eek: you tell me that’s natural!).
what’s so bad about having natural teeth?
There’s nothing wrong with “natural teeth,” I’m not planning on getting braces or anything. It’s just the majority of my friends have nice, white teeth, and those that don’t, well, it’s really obvious they don’t brush. I drink a lot of soft drinks, and occassionally smoke cigars on special occassions, but overall, I don’t intake that much that can stain my teeth. I just don’t like the fact that they always look dirty. I sure as hell don’t want them blue white, but I wouldn’t mind if they just weren’t yellow.
I’ve had success with the gentle whitening toothpastes, as long as that was their main purpose. The ones that were both for whitening and sensative teeth didn’t seem to be able to keep up with my tea drinking habit, nor where they able to keep my teeth from being so sensative. 
I just want my teeth to be their natrual colors, I don’t want that ‘refrigerator’ smile nor yellow teeth. (What I tend to do, if I remember to buy 'em is brush with one kind in the morning, than the other in the evening.)
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According to my dentist, your teeth can’t get any whiter than their natural original color no matter how much you bleach them. During the bleaching process they get a chalkey look but they resume a natural color about three days later.
I’ve bleached mine and they look good but they don’t glow in the dark. I remember when I was a child and my permanent teeth came in that they weren’t as white as those of some of my friends.
Maybe the reason the “refrigerator white” smile looks so weird to us is that we aren’t accustomed to seeing adults with white teeth. After all, there are so many things that stain them - coffee, tea, cola, chocolate, smoking (if you do), probably anything with any artificial color in it - and even the polishing the dentist gives them doesn’t remove all of the stain, but the bleach does.
I’m happy with the result, as you can see every tooth in my mouth when I smile so I want them to look their best!