Is DIY Teeth Whitening a Good Idea?

An experienced cosmetic dentist provides the best possible teeth whitening results. But many people wonder if they can do it themselves. While DIY teeth whitening may work for you, we recommend visiting our cosmetic dentists for a consultation. If you can’t get your teeth as white as you want on your own, we can tell you about our professional options for creating a glamorous smile.

Here are the most common at-home whitening tips you might find on the internet:

• DIY #1: A healthy diet. Eating well is great for the appearance and health of your teeth and gums. A whole foods diet, including plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit, has loads of vitamins and minerals that are essential to the health of your teeth. And healthy teeth are less likely to have decay and other unattractive problems.
• DIY #2: “Oil pulling.” Swishing coconut oil in your mouth for 20 minutes is called oil pulling, and it keeps popping up on DIY teeth whitening blogs across the internet. While it’s probably not harmful, there is little evidence that it does anything to whiten your teeth, and it certainly should not be used as an alternative to brushing and flossing.
• DIY #3: Good dental hygiene. While your at-home hygiene cannot remove stains the way professional teeth whitening does, brushing and flossing helps to prevent stains. It does so by breaking up the bacterial film on your teeth that causes tooth decay. Brushing also removes foods and beverages that stain your teeth, such as red wine, tomato sauce and coffee.
• DIY #4: Teeth whitening strips. Over-the-counter teeth whitening strips are ubiquitous. They’re everywhere – from the ads on television to your local grocery store. Some people are dissatisfied with the results of these strips because they are uneven: The strips are not customized to fit precisely over your teeth.
• DIY #5: Activated charcoal. Activated charcoal seems to be in everything these days, from skincare products to smoothies. Traditionally, activated charcoal has been used to treat people who have been poisoned. The pores of the charcoal absorb poisonous materials, thereby removing them from your body. It is possible that a paste made with water and charcoal, when applied to the surface of your teeth, would bind with stain-causing bacteria; however, there is no evidence proving it.

You deserve to feel great about your smile. Teeth whitening is a simple, fast way to rejuvenate your smile in a dramatic way.

To find out if our Omaha NE teeth whitening services are right for you, please call The Dentists at 402-307-6227.