Bright white teeth are a visual highlight on a person’s face. However, it is not so easy to maintain the original whiteness of your teeth, because your consumption behaviour can discolour your teeth. To combat this discolouration, a number of bleaching measures have become established.
You can whiten your teeth yourself with over-the-counter whitening products from the pharmacy or drugstore. However, you will only achieve very subtle results. Teeth whitening at the dentist’s works much more intensively, because the doctor can whiten your teeth with higher concentrations of carbamide peroxide, so that your teeth become much brighter compared to self-treatment.
Incorrect dosages or ill-fitting trays can end up doing more harm than good. In addition, you must not have any dental or gum disease. Therefore, be sure to talk to dental professionals if you want to whiten your teeth yourself!
To be able to implement these at home, you need a special gel: the bleaching gel. In various bleaching gel tests on the internet you will find this tip: Pay close attention to the proportion of hydrogen peroxide as well as the ingredient triclosan.
The whitening or bleaching of teeth is called tooth bleaching. This includes both methods of whitening your teeth at home and cosmetic tooth whitening at the dentist. The agent used to make your teeth white again is a so-called bleaching gel. This is present in the whitening pen, is part of the whitening strips and is necessary for the whitening tray to work. If you want to buy bleaching gel, be sure to look out for these ingredients: Hydrogen peroxide and triclosan. The proportion of hydrogen peroxide, which is sometimes the best-known type of bleaching agent, must not exceed 0.1%.
There are a variety of factors that can discolour your teeth. There are two basic types of discolouration: external and internal. While internal discolouration is caused by caries and dental diseases, external discolouration is mainly caused by food or diseases. We will now focus on external discolouration, where it comes from and how it can be remedied.
To be able to smile again with radiant white teeth, you can carry out a bleaching treatment. This works particularly well at home with the help of a bleaching gel. This guide complements the bleaching gel comparison and explains why it is so important to pay attention to the hydrogen peroxide content and triclosan when choosing bleaching products.
The hydrogen peroxide contained in many bleaching products is not safe to use. Hydrogen peroxide is a compound of oxygen and hydrogen. Carbamide peroxide is also used for cosmetic purposes, such as teeth whitening. Carbamide peroxide is a compound of hydrogen and urea.
If the concentration in cosmetic products is exceeded, both substances can be harmful to health and toxic. There is a risk of dangerous side effects, allergies or irritation of the skin. This has been tested on mice and rats, among others. According to the European Cosmetics Regulation, oral and dental care products may only be sold freely in the EU if they do not contain more than 0.1% of hydrogen peroxide. Excluded are products that only dentists are allowed to use. They are allowed to use a higher concentration for tooth whitening because professional application reduces any side effects.
Solutions with more than five per cent must be explicitly labelled as hazardous to health. According to new EU guidelines, solutions of more than 12% hydrogen peroxide are banned. This ban goes hand in hand with the tightening of abusive use of the substance as a component of triacetone triperoxide. This is used in the production of explosives in the terrorist scene.
When buying a bleaching gel, you should also consider these factors
Make sure that there are no preservatives in the whitening gel of your choice. Most chemical additives can be harmful to your health.
Look for a bleaching gel with fluoride. This ingredient will protect the surface of your teeth, which has been damaged by bleaching, in the long term.
Make sure that the bleaching gel does not contain triclosan. Triclosan is a bacteria-inhibiting substance and is used as a disinfectant in various cosmetic products. However, triclosan is highly controversial as it can cause inflammatory reactions of the intestines and consequently lead to intestinal diseases.
Professional bleaching gel at the dentist
Before professional bleaching, the dentist will take a close look at your teeth and gums. This is because your teeth must be completely free of caries for the treatment. Otherwise, the bleaching agent can penetrate the decayed teeth and cause damage. The gums must also be healthy. They must not bleed and there must be no gum pockets.
It should also be noted that dental fillings and veneers made of ceramic or plastic, such as crowns and bridges, cannot be bleached. They will still have the same colour after teeth whitening as before. However, the dentist can correct the colour differences afterwards with new fillings.
In addition, the discolouration must not reach too deep into the tooth enamel, because the bleaching will not be effective enough there. If the teeth are discoloured in deeper layers, a light abrasion of the enamel is therefore preferable to bleaching.
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