What are the options for teeth whitening?

[Knakeredd]

I am 58. My teeth are straight and in goodish nic - but are quite yellowed - possiby not due to staining but due to enamel wear.

What are best options for teeth whitening?

Your Dentist

Its illegal within the UK for anyone else to do whitening treatments and anything you can buy online won't work

Definitely an established dental practice - safe and effective. You can have home kits from them too to extend the impact of the dental treatment.

If you already have enamel wear, whitening may not work, or cause increased sensitivity, especially if not in the hands of an experienced professional. If something goes wrong, the professional can likely fix it.

so go see your dentist. Anyone offering or selling tooth whitening services in the UK who is not a dentist is practising illegally

I got some Crest whitening toothpaste from the US. It's much better than anything available here. But probably not as good as professional whitening if you can afford it.

Do dentists do the laser treatments or only the version with gum shields overnight?

I've had gum shields. I can't be bothered with that. Too much faff. I'm currently looking for a dentist that does laser. I may have to return to Sussex for it. There isn't much of that in rural Somerset.

I have very thin/worn enamel too.

I had tooth whitening from my dentist - trays and whitening gels - and although they lifted the colour a bit, and they look marginally better and brighter, it hasn’t whitened them, really. They are still reasonably yellow

So if your yellowing is due to thin enamel then I’m not sure it would work so well for you either, I’m afraid. I would definitely make sure you ask whether they think it will work if your enamel is very thin.

Thanks - thats what I am thinking.

Is the next step then veneers?

I don’t know. I guess yes it might be veneers, if whitening doesn’t work, but I personally don’t want to go down that route and so have resigned myself to not having gleaming white teeth.

And in fact, when I look at the teeth of colleagues and friends and just people in general, pretty much no one has perfectly gleaming white teeth, they are all varying degrees of off-white and yellow, so I doubt they look at mine and think eurgh. I doubt they really notice mine at all, and so I have become less bothered by it.

Following, I am concerned about sensitivity. Does anyone has a good experience via dentist treatment with zero sensitivity?

I’m a dentist. The laser whitening is pretty limited. The strength of the gel is stronger so patients are more prone to sensitivity with this. Plus my experience is that we tend to need to “top it up” with trays anyway.
go see your dentist to assess the enamel loss as only a professional will be able to judge. Sometimes whitening alone is sufficient. Sometimes a combination of whitening and composite bonding or veneers. Veneers can be more destructive though. We would tend to choose the most conservative treatment if possible

@cryinginthechapel could the whitening cause further damage to the enamel?

It’s hard to comment without examining your teeth, really hard to say. In theory overuse of whitening can indeed damage the enamel further. Also you’re more likely to get side effects such as sensitivity if you have less enamel protection.
this is why it is SO important to get a proper dental assessment in advance of starting treatment because so many things can go wrong

What does composite involve and cost - and how does it compare to veneers?

You can do in chair or home kit with Zoom via the dentist. And you can buy the actual gel off Amazon but I'd be scared it'd be fake.

I did the home kit as he gave me the custom mouthpieces and two sets of gel for £200..the first one I wore for an hour before bed for two weeks but it made my teeth so sensitive just the air touching them woke me up with pain, and it was so sensitive the next day. It did work though.

The second one he gave me was to bo worn overnight. This was actually less painful than the one hour one.

In chair one is way more expensive, like £700 or something but it's quicker I think.

Composite is the material that is used for a white filling. A veneer is a thin layer of usually porcelain that is placed over a tooth ( usually upper anterior teeth) to disguise imperfections. It’s a bit like a “false nail”
Composite bonding/composite veneers are an alernative to porcelain that is a highly skilled process to reshape your teeth to make more aesthetically pleasing. It doesn’t whiten your teeth. You would need whitening done first then composites afterwards. The shade of the composite needs to match your own teeth.
As I said to you last year, you really need to be assessed by a dental professional to see what your options are. Every case is different and not all treatments are suitable.
Costs vary from practice to practice. Composite filling usually start around £100 privately. Veneers are significantly more than that, as the time spent in the chair will be significant. Veneers usually are @£500per tooth. Tooth whitening . Again, depends on individuals.
Only a dental professional will be able to advise what would be best for you

The in chair one isn’t very popular any more. The teeth get very dehydrated during the process and initially look lighter straight away but after a few hours, the results aren’t quite so good

I had Enlighten whitening through my dentist. It was extremely effective but also very expensive. I have the trays now so I buy a strong peroxide gel from Amazon about once a year to top it up. I find with the strong peroxide, I need only to do one session to get the same results as the dentist’s long programme.

Having said that, my husband buys Crest strips when he goes to the USA for work or when we’re there for hols. They work brilliantly for him. You can buy them from Amazon if you’re not going to the US. We always get requests from friends to buy them whenever we go.

Strong peroxide could burn your gums. Buying from Amazon isn’t a great idea as the source of origin might not necessarily be reliable or legit.

honestly. Your teeth are a body part. Please don’t damage them. Seek professional advice. If you’ve had trays made by your dentist in the past they should be able to prescribe some more top up gel.