Teeth whitening works. You can whiten teeth with bleach. Now, you’re thinking, “Oh, is this the same bleach I dump into my washing machine to make my white clothes whiter?” Actually, it’s somewhat the same, and that is a little frightening to a lot of people. Can we put bleach on our teeth?
Well, here’s the story. You definitely can put bleach on the teeth. It’s safe, but you don’t want it on your soft tissues. You don’t want it on your gums. You need to just put it on the hardest substance in the whole human body, which is enamel, stronger than bone, that can handle that type of aggression with the bleach, and get you a whiter result.
The bleaching agent used in teeth whitening is hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide. Enamel is 96 percent densely packed minerals, making it the hardest substance in the human body, even harder than bone (Hardest Substance in the Human Body: All About Tooth Enamel).
Now, I’m a holistic dentist, so for me, I’m worried about your soft tissue. I don’t want that bleach to touch that. I don’t want to damage our soft tissue at all. Our soft tissue is our gums, and our gums are helpful in covering the roots of our teeth and protecting our teeth. So, we don’t want to make them mad. We also don’t want you to swallow bleach. I don’t think you want to go up to a tub of bleach and drink it. I don’t want you to eat it either.
So, I prefer to have you either spit into a towel when you bleach or do it in my office so I can use my suctions to keep you from swallowing it. Therefore, the answer of what’s the best way to bleach in my opinion is in my office where I can control it. I even put a component on the gums to block away the gums so the bleach can’t touch it. And I use suctions in your mouth to make you not swallow it. This way, it’s safe to get your teeth bleached without damaging any of the other components around it.
This protective approach minimizes risks. The most commonly seen side effects of teeth whitening are tooth sensitivity and gingival irritation, which are usually mild to moderate and transient (Safety issues of tooth whitening using peroxide-based materials – PubMed).
Now, there are components over the counter that work—different whitening strips that work—but you have to realize you’re laying it on your gums. A lot of these whitening strips are shaped like a rectangle and you just fold them over your teeth. That’s right on your gums and you do have damage to your gums. A lot of people argue that damage is reversible, but I’m not a big fan of damaging the gums over and over for an aesthetic reason.
So I would say let’s avoid that and let the dentist do their job. Now dentists can make you a bleaching home thing where they make you a little tray that you put in and it just doesn’t sit on your gums at all and only sits on your teeth and then you load the bleach in that little tray and it touches only your teeth. That’s safe. I let my kids do that but I make them spit into a towel because I don’t want them to swallow any of the bleach.
While drugstore strips contain lower concentrations of bleaching agents, professional treatments use stronger formulas under controlled conditions. Professional whitening can last for several months or even years with proper care, while over-the-counter products may provide temporary whitening effects (Professional Teeth Whitening vs. Over-The-Counter Strips | Douglas G. Hope DDS, FAGD).
So what is the best way to bleach? In office. Second best way is probably doing it at home, but with the help of a tray that the dentist makes. Third best way, I guess, is damaging your gums and putting those strips on your gums.
But I also want to point out that I have a license. I have a license to practice dentistry, and that keeps you safer because I have the knowledge and expert level to help you keep safer. And so, they can only sell over-the-counter bleach at a certain level. I can use a stronger level if I know that I’m containing it just to the tooth itself.
I always joke with my patients that you can buy those strips over the counter, but you’re going to have to do those for five months to get the same result I can do in 30 minutes. And I can keep you safer by blocking out your gums, keeping you safe from swallowing, stuff like that.
Five months versus 30 minutes—that’s the difference.
