One effective treatment for improving your smile is a professional tooth whitening system designed.

The two major types of tooth whitening systems are in-office (active) or passive (conducted by the patient at home while closely supervised by the dentist.) Sometimes your dentist may recommend either system or a combination of both, to give you the best results in the least amount of time. Your dentist will create your personal trays from an alginate impression of your mouth; this customization is part of what makes Opalescence Take Home Whitening Gels so effective. Custom whitening trays are time-consuming to make, are often not used long or frequently enough by patients and can at times cause sensitivity.

We do find that Zoom whitens a little more than your product upon the initial treatment, but when our patients follow up with 3-5 days of topical applications, we're at the same shade... and with a lot less tooth sensitivity, and a lot less Operatory time! In partnership with the Smiles For Life Foundation and Discus Dental (makers of professional teeth whitening products) we're offering substantially discounted, professional teeth whitening with 100 percent of the proceeds going to charity! Treatment: in-office conditioning visit utilizing KöR 13% Dual-Activated, Tri-Barrel Hydremide Peroxide gel delivered in KöR-Seal Whitening Trays; 6-8 weeks of at-home nighttime whitening; final in-office whitening visit utilizing KöR 34% Dual-Activated, Tri- Barrel Hydremide Peroxide gel; and periodic at-home maintenance.

Treatment: in-office conditioning visit utilizing KöR 13% Dual-Activated, Tri-Barrel Hydremide Peroxide gel delivered in KöR-Seal Whitening Trays; 3-4 weeks of at-home nighttime whitening; a final in-office whitening visit utilizing KöR 34% Dual-Activated, Tri-Barrel Hydremide Peroxide gel; and periodic at-home maintenance. Tray bleaching is a type of professional whitening that uses custom-made trays and whitening gel only available through your dentist. Prescription-strength Opalescence Tooth Whitening Systems are stronger and more effective than over-the-counter teeth whitening products, and are only available through your dentist.

If you want to whiten your teeth, there's another reason to skip kits like GLO Science and IntelliWhite: At a couple hundred dollars each, they just don't cost that much less than going to the dentist, where you will get custom bleach trays or have the dentist start the process and give you custom trays to take home. One owner of a company that makes whitening systems that do not use lights told me that he sends clients a script to use to convince patients that it still works: He tells dentists to lie and say they have both systems, but that they've been finding that the lightless system works even better. (All tooth bleaching will dry out the teeth a little, but the effect will be more pronounced if there's heat involved.) Because any tooth whitening process can make your teeth sensitive, it's not advisable to whiten your teeth whitening pen right before a big meeting or date, even to get the extra temporary boost of whitening.