It is a common opinion that we will look better, if not healthier, if we have neater and whiter teeth. Unfortunately, not every one has neat white teeth.
There are many factors that affect the color of your teeth. The first one is getting older. Getting older affects your entire body, including your teeth and their color. As you age your teeth are turning yellow and this is a perfectly natural process. The second one is what you eat and drink. There are foods and beverages that make your teeth darker; the worst offenders being red wine, cigarettes, soda drinks, coffee, chocolate, and berries. The third one is accidents; if you bump a tooth, you might damage it, and this can cause the tooth to get darker. Then the last one is antibiotics. Consumption of certain antibiotics during your early years can result in yellow teeth.
Now, if you feel that you need teeth whitening, there are 2 general types of teeth whitening. The first one is dentist supervised teeth whitening procedure, which you can expect to pay anywhere from $500 to over $2,000 for tooth bleaching. Teeth whitening performed with the help of custom-fitted plastic bleaching tray is one of the most popular teeth whitening procedures. The second one is using one of the many over-the-counter at home teeth whitening products, like whitening strips and whitening trays with bleaching gel, which is much cheaper than the above cost.
The advantages of performing dentist supervised whitening is that, the dentist can determine what type of treatment the patient needs (in-office or at-home), the concentration of peroxide in the whitening gel and also that the in-office tooth bleaching is supervised by professional. Thus, the procedures are much safer with more certain results.
