Do you brush, floss, and use mouthwash every day? Do you attend your dental appointments consistently every six months? Even daily brushing and flossing, regular use of mouthwash, and seeing your dentist every six months can still leave you with stained and yellowed teeth. Many of the things we eat and drink stain our teeth despite our best efforts. What we eat and drink aside, trauma, infection, and even some medications will discolour your teeth.
Yes, you have alternatives to having your teeth cleaned by a dentist in South Tampa. After all, you can buy DIY teeth whitening kits at drugstores and grocery stores all over South Tampa. Those kits promise whiter teeth quickly, safely, and easily, but dentists in South Tampa know better than to fall for those promises. You can avoid wasting time and money on over-the-counter whitening kits by asking your dentist to provide whitening services that actually work. There are four main advantages of professional teeth whitening.
Professional teeth whitening in South Tampa is tailored for you
Your dentist will use whitening materials with much stronger bleaching ingredients than are available in whitening kits from drugstores and grocery stores. Even better, dentists can adjust those materials to target the specific stains present on your teeth. Rather than applying the same level of bleaching compounds to every area of every tooth — necessary or not — your dentist will place compounds specifically where required without wasting the compounds on areas where they aren’t required.
Teeth whitening with a dentist is faster and more effective
Yes, it’s possible that whitening strips might show some whitening effect on your teeth. But, depending on the cause of your stains, they may show no effect at all. Your dentist will advise you if your particular stains can not be whitened with bleaching compounds and, in that case, will offer alternatives. With professional teeth whitening, you may save a lot of time and money, and obtain the desired results faster. In just an hour, your dentist can complete four rounds of teeth whitening and produce teeth up to eight shades whiter than you started with. Your dentist will show you, using a shade guide, the difference from where you started.
Whitening at a dentist is safer than DIY options
As a general rule, whitening strips are safe because they are weak. That safety, though, is a double-edged sword. Because the strips are weaker, people are often tempted to use them too often and too long at the risk of damaging their gums. (Not to mention wasting your time.) A dentist in South Tampa is trained to use those compounds safely and to tweak them precisely as required by your teeth. Even if your teeth are particularly sensitive, your dentist can adjust the materials and the curing LED light to account for that potential discomfort related to teeth whitening.
Professional teeth whitening can last a year
Teeth cleaning by a dentist can last for a year if you commit to good daily oral hygiene habits. This is a sharp distinguishing feature between professional teeth whitening and whitening with DIY kits. Even if a DIY kit does produce whitening results, that whitening effect will only last for a matter of weeks. To maintain any whitening effect, you’ll need to repeat the process over and over.
Americans spend well over a billion — yes, that’s a “b” — dollars a year on over-the-counter whitening kits. Much of that money is, there’s no avoiding saying it, wasted. Thankfully, though, it is not the only option for achieving whiter teeth. With a dentist, you can get your teeth whiter faster and safer while getting advice about how to deal with stains that whitening compounds can’t address — stains on dental work, discolorations caused by infections, or discolorations caused by the side effects of medication.
If you’re ready to achieve truly whiter teeth that will last a year or more, not just put you through week after week of expense and disappointment, contact a dentist in South Tampa and ask them for an appointment for professional teeth whitening.