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There are few friendlier first impressions you can make than offering up a sparkling-white smile. It’s an option that supports an industry worth over $7 billion in 2023.
Few people start out life with white teeth. The brightest natural tooth enamel is best described as ivory, and daily living is full of delicious teeth-staining challenges in the form of berries, tomato sauces, coffee, tea, and wine.
Sure, you can opt for over-the-counter (OTC) kits, but the truth about at-home whitening strips is that they represent a weak version when compared with Zoom! teeth whitening, which we offer at Central Avenue Dental in Midtown, Tribeca, and Valley Stream, New York.
A quick scan of the oral care aisle of any drugstore displays a wide range of products designed to whiten and brighten your smile. Simply stated, the whitening ability of any product or system comes down to the strength of the bleaching agents it uses to reduce or eliminate stains on tooth enamel.
In essence, commercial teeth-whitening products, including at-home whitening strips, use the same principles as a dental office whitening. However, product safety makes over-the-counter products much less effective than professional systems.
Your teeth-whitening choices generally fall into three categories:
The commercially available options each deliver consumer-strength bleaching agents in a variety of forms for ease of use. As well as whitening strips that use a tape-like system to hold bleaches against your teeth during treatments, you can find whitening products in paste, gel, and pen formats.
Typically, the bleaching agents in OTC products are carbamide peroxide or hydrogen peroxide. These are the same bleaches we use in professional whitening systems, but they’re low-strength versions of those delivered by our whitening specialists.
Whitening bleaches can, potentially, damage your teeth and gums when used incorrectly. For that reason, OTC products have limited whitening power. When used as directed, reputable at-home whitening strips can provide modest results a shade or two brighter than the color at the start of treatment.
In the hands of technicians who are trained to use professional-strength peroxides, chair-side whitening systems at a dentist’s office provide the quickest and most dramatic whitening effects.
At Central Avenue Dental, we use the Philips Zoom! whitening system, which can provide you with a smile up to eight times brighter than your starting point, though individual results can vary.
In a typical 90-minute appointment, we apply the Zoom! hydrogen peroxide bleach in a series of 20-minute sessions. The Zoom! gel gets a boost from a specialized blue light activator that speeds the bleaching process, providing reliable and stunning whiteness in a single session.
Though at-home whiteners can’t match chairside results, they still have a place in the whitening game when used as aftercare for your dental office whitening procedure. We can recommend home care systems that maintain the brightness you enjoy after your Zoom! session.
Learn more about your smile-brightening options with a visit to Central Avenue Dental’s nearest location. Book an appointment with your choice of office online or by phone today.
