Do you want to have a teeth whitening treatment but have not yet decided where you are going to have it done?

So where can you have your teeth whitened? There are three options: you can have your teeth whitened at your dentist’s, you can go to a beauty salon or you can have your teeth whitened at home.

To help you make your choice, we will present the different approaches, the techniques used and the cost of each solution depending on the place you choose to have your teeth whitened.

1. Tooth whitening at the dentist

When you think about having your teeth whitened, the first person you think of is your dentist. And you are right! The dentist remains a health professional who is able to ensure the good health of your mouth. He performs check-ups and assesses whether you have an oral problem. By problem, we mean of course the presence of a cavity for example, but we also mean your gums. Some people are indeed prone to gingivitis which needs to be treated.

A routine annual visit to the dentist is strongly recommended for the entire population. On this occasion, the dentist will most likely perform a scaling.

But let’s talk more specifically about tooth whitening at the dentist.

Your dentist will carry out a check-up and will identify the current colour of your teeth. If you are in good oral health, your teeth may still be discoloured due to diet, smoking or simply ageing.

The dentist will then be able to advise you on a tooth whitening treatment and its duration. He will make a personalised diagnosis that you will not find anywhere else.

Very often, the dentist will decide to carry out a chairside treatment first. This means that you will come to the dentist’s office for the first whitening session. He will follow a protocol that will protect your gums and allow the application of whitening gels made of hydrogen peroxide or carbamide.

As a health professional, he is entitled to use gels with higher doses than those freely available on the market. Thus it is gels with 6% hydrogen peroxide or 16% carbamide peroxide that are favoured by dentists. It is possible to have gels with a higher dosage during this treatment. The session can last between 30 minutes and an hour and the dentist will use a laser or blue LED tooth whitening lamp to speed up the process.

Once the chairside treatment is completed, your dentist may recommend that you continue your treatment at home. In this case, a custom-made mouthpiece will be made. He will then prescribe gels with a maximum hydrogen peroxide content of 6%. You can then follow the recommended protocol to the letter and practice home bleaching.

In summary, having your teeth whitened by a dentist allows you to :

  • ensure your good oral health;
  • make a personalised diagnosis of the treatment to be carried out;
  • benefit from the experience of a health professional;
  • carry out treatments in the office and then at home with gels containing higher doses of hydrogen peroxide;
  • have controlled results.

The duration of the effectiveness of dental bleaching at the dentist is very variable: some say one year when others tell you that the effects can be visible for up to 4 years. The reality depends on several factors, including your oral hygiene and your eating habits.

2. To carry out a teeth whitening in a beauty salon

For you, getting a bright smile is like having a facial: it is a cosmetic service and you trust your beautician in a beauty salon.

This solution can prove to be an excellent choice, especially as more and more beauty salons decide to offer this treatment in their catalogue to their customers.

The most commonly used technique is the application of a tray on which the tooth whitening gel is first applied. The teeth whitening gels used in beauty salons contain 0.1% hydrogen peroxide.

It should be noted that some people practice American teeth whitening with gels containing 6% peroxide. But officially these gels are only allowed to be handled by health professionals. As for those who practice American teeth whitening with even higher doses of gels, there is only one piece of advice: run away! The risks for your teeth and gums are real and irreparable.

In an institute, once the gel has been applied, the session generally lasts 20 minutes and is repeated twice in a row, i.e. a complete treatment lasting one hour. To accelerate the oxidation of the whitening agent, beauty salons are equipped with professional blue LED whitening lamps.

The results of a dental bleaching treatment in a beauty salon can be summarised as follows:

  • you are taken care of by beauty professionals who are used to taking care of their clients;
  • the results obtained are generally very satisfactory;
  • having a professional teeth whitening lamp is a real plus in the effectiveness of the treatment;
  • you are guaranteed the use of gels that are safe for your health, provided that the beauty salon respects the regulations;
  • you benefit from advice on how to maintain your whitening;
  • the relationship of trust established allows you to schedule new teeth whitening sessions at an appropriate frequency.

The duration of a tooth whitening treatment in a beauty salon depends on the same criteria of oral hygiene and consumption of colouring foods as for a tooth whitening treatment in a dentist’s office.

The effects are usually counted in months and you can decide to return to your institute once a quarter without danger to your enamel.

3. Tooth whitening at home

You may not want to delegate your teeth whitening treatment. Don’t worry, you can easily perform teeth whitening at home.

You will be spoilt for choice when it comes to whitening products.

If you don’t want to put too much effort into whitening your teeth, you can buy a simple whitening toothpaste. You can easily find them in supermarkets, on the internet or in pharmacies. Simply brush your teeth daily (morning and evening) and you can hope to brighten up your smile. Let’s be modest about the results obtained, they have nothing to do with teeth whitening at the dentist or in a beauty salon.

You can also use natural remedies that have been used for decades, if not hundreds of years, by our ancestors. Without drawing up an exhaustive list, we can mention: baking soda, lemon, essential oils of tea tree or peppermint, green clay or even charcoal powder for the teeth. Each of these products has natural whitening properties. However, they should not be used daily.

Let’s move on to whitening strips and whitening pens. We put them in the same category because they generally work on the same principle. They contain a bleaching agent (often hydrogen peroxide) in small quantities. You either apply it by putting strips on your teeth or you choose to spread it with the brush of the pen. Both of these products help to maintain the whiteness of your teeth and are a complement to a previous tooth whitening treatment.

Finally, the most successful approach to whitening your teeth at home is to purchase a teeth whitening kit. It is best to select a complete kit that includes a quantity of teeth whitening gels, a clip-on tray, a mini LED light to activate the treatment, as well as cleaning products and a remineralising gel if your teeth are sensitive after the treatment. These kits offer you to follow a very detailed and easy to use instruction manual. Moreover, the presence of a colour chart will be a plus so that you can evaluate the number of shades you have gained.

To conclude, here are the advantages of home teeth whitening:

  • the variety of products used;
  • the tranquillity of home care;
  • the modest cost of the treatment, which remains the least expensive solution compared to a dental institute or surgery;
  • easy-to-use products that are mainly solutions for maintaining a dental whitening, except of course for the whitening kits, which offer a complete treatment.

Regarding the duration of the effects of whitening, we will only talk about tooth whitening kits here. Depending on the texture of your enamel and your lifestyle, a tooth whitening treatment can be effective from a few weeks to a few months.

If you are asked “where to get your teeth whitened”, you will now have the answer to this question. It’s up to you to decide which whitening solution interests you the most.