To Bleach or not to Bleach?

American Fitness, July, 2001 by D.K. Howe

Americans put a high price on their smiles and these days, it seems as if everyone is willing to spend beaucoup bucks to whiten their teeth. It's an unfortunate fact of life that our teeth become yellow with age. One reason for this is that decades of brushing can actually wear away enamel and expose the yellow under layer, known as dentin. In addition, there are those adult habits of drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes that manifest themselves as dark brown and yellow stains on the teeth. The use of antibiotics in early childhood can also cause permanent gray, black or green stains and in extreme cases can actually stunt the development of tooth enamel.

If you haven't bleached your teeth, but think it's time you did, you have a couple of options. You can put yourself in the hands of a competent dentist and do an in-office procedure. This involves a bleaching solution, a laser and lots of money being transferred from your pocket to the dentist's! "It's an extremely expensive process," says Dr. Steven Roth, a cosmetic dentist in Manhattan. He generally recommends that his patients consider at-home bleaching as a viable alternative to laser teeth whitening. At-home whitening methods are less expensive, but more time consuming. Usually, an individual wears a solution-filled mold, a few hours a day, for two to five weeks. In extreme cases, however, treatment time can last between nine to twelve months.

What about those over-the-counter toothpastes that contain baking soda and peroxide? "Toothpastes with baking soda only [act] as an abrasive and, while they can remove stains, they will not brighten teeth," explains Dr. Roth. "Peroxide, on the other hand, is an extremely effective measure for brightening teeth. Unfortunately, a person would have to brush their teeth for five hours, instead of five minutes, to achieve the effect they were looking for."