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Wed Dec 01, 2004 6:00 pm  |
I've used Crest whitening strips and was very pleased with the results, but as a smoker and coffee drinker (ssssh!), I found the results disappeared after a few weeks. Now I'm thinking of getting my dentist to make a tray for me - you know the kinda treatment I mean - you fill the tray with gel and wear it for a couple of weeks.....  I was wondering before I splurge $300 on it, if any of you have gone that route and if the results lasted longer than just a few weeks (bearing in mind my bad habits!)?
Anya |
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Wed Dec 01, 2004 6:52 pm |
The results last a long time! I had my teeth whitened several years ago. I find I only need to wear my trays now about every six to eight months. If you smoke and drink a lot of coffee you can get those stains off with baking soda. Take a two by two gauze and dampen. Apply baking soda to the gauze and rub the stain off. Floss the baking soda between the teeth with baby yarn.
Make sure you only put the slightest amount of the whitening solution in the tray. It is not good to put so much in that it gets on your gums. I put my trays in at night and sleep with them.
I am very lucky when it comes to the teeth as I have two relatives that are dentist. |
_________________
As I am getting older I realize my biggest beauty secret is smile more and frown less. Be aware that wrinkles do not make a person unattractive. Cynicism, unforgiveness, anger and jealousy are the real culprits. Sixty something  |
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Wed Dec 01, 2004 10:00 pm |
when you're bleaching use a sensitive paste like sensodyne. Also maintain your new white with whitening pastes that contain baking soda like mentioned before.
The whitestrips from crest worked for me...too bad it didn't for you.
Have you considered the laser whitening? It would give you instant gratification! |
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Thu Dec 02, 2004 5:07 pm |
Thanks for replying Winnie and Lianne. I'm really encouraged to go for it by your answers Winnie if I had relatives in the family who were dentists, I'd have a field day, lucky you!
Lianne the whitening strips worked and my teeth looked great for weeks, but I'm noticing they're darkening again. I'd go for the laser whitening in a heartbeat, but I suspect the cost would be too much 
Anya |
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Thu Dec 02, 2004 5:14 pm |
too bad you don't live near me...we have one dentist who quite often offers free bleachin kits for new patients after a full check up (x-rays, bites, cleaning, inspection, everything)
I may try him out just for that reason...But I wonder if he's any good b/c he does offer that special, does that mean his patients don't go back there? |
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Thu Dec 02, 2004 7:58 pm |
| lianne wrote: |
when you're bleaching use a sensitive paste like sensodyne. Also maintain your new white with whitening pastes that contain baking soda like mentioned before.
The whitestrips from crest worked for me...too bad it didn't for you.
Have you considered the laser whitening? It would give you instant gratification! |
lianne - how long does it take the crest to work? |
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Thu Dec 02, 2004 8:46 pm |
| I brush my teeth every day with baking soda and food-grade peroxide, it takes the stains out quite nicely. It might be worth a try, it is a very cheap alternative! |
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Thu Dec 02, 2004 9:23 pm |
Happygirl, you wear the strips for 5 minutes twice a day - I used to put 'em on while I was doing my face in the a.m. and while watching t.v in the p.m. You do it for a week, and if you don't smoke or drink coffee like me, you should get a longer lasting result.
Chimera, how long before you notice a change with the peroxide and baking soda? There's so many different strengths of peroxide in the drug store, its hard to know which one will do the least damage to the enamel
Anya |
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Thu Dec 02, 2004 11:03 pm |
happygirl,
I did them when they first came out which was a 2 week program twice a day, I remember it being more than 5 minutes. Now the premium is out which takes only a week (prolly the ones anya uses). My teeth aren't very bad so I only used a half treatment...It's probably time for me to do another one..
I tried the ones that paint on and they don't work as well as the strips. I do warn you, they tasted nasty to me. I could only handle doing the top... |
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Thu Dec 02, 2004 11:05 pm |
| lianne wrote: |
happygirl,
I did them when they first came out which was a 2 week program twice a day, I remember it being more than 5 minutes. Now the premium is out which takes only a week (prolly the ones anya uses). My teeth aren't very bad so I only used a half treatment...It's probably time for me to do another one..
I tried the ones that paint on and they don't work as well as the strips. I do warn you, they tasted nasty to me. I could only handle doing the top... |
Thanks, lianne, I'll give it a try, and let you know if I can handle the taste.  |
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Thu Dec 02, 2004 11:53 pm |
| You notice modest results with the baking soda/peroxide routine immediately. It's not going to make your teeth bright white, but it will restore a normal white tooth color fairly quickly. I use food grade peroxide when I brush, so it is fairly weak -- my bottle says 17 1/2%. |
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Mabsy
Moderator
 
Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Posts: 9644
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Fri Dec 03, 2004 3:19 am |
I've had the treatment done by the dentist (the kind where they make the trays for you etc) and the results lasted quite some time. If you have any fillings in your teeth though, they will stay the same color - so consider that before going ahead.
Also, I tend to not like using abrasive whitening toothpastes - the idea of something whitening by thinning out my tooth enamel just does not excite me. Btw, is baking soda gentle enough or would that be classed as abrasive? |
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Fri Dec 03, 2004 5:01 am |
Hey, did y'all know that you can get "professional strength" Crest strips from your dentist? Of course, they cost a bit more than the formula you can buy at the drugstore, but they contain a higher concentrate of the perioxide/whitening stuff and it's WAY cheaper than the bleaching trays (unless you go to Lianne's dentist!!) or laser whitening. Also, they have the new "Premium" Crest WhiteStrips at the drugstore now too -- they're supposed to work in 7 days rather than the 14 days of the original formula....
I'm a smoker, too, and my teeth are still white from my orig application of Crest White Strips...
Also, did you know that you can buy toothbrushes now that have polishing pads built into them?? I've been using one of those for about 9 months (I don't mean the same toothbrush! I buy a fresh one every couple months) so maybe that is what's helped with maintaining my Crest White Strip results...? I also use a Mentadent toothpaste (baking soda and peroxide).
Anyway, just a thought!
Carrie
Carrie |
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Fri Dec 10, 2004 12:21 am |
Teeth whitening is a wonderful thing, but I wanted to throw in a bit of information for those like myself who having the 'grayish' discoloration problem with their teeth. Unfortunately teeth whitening strips nor professional dental bleaching is a real help with this problem. That is unless something completely new is currently on the market, and I am not aware of something like that right now. Please correct me if there is something because I would love to know. I would dance naked in the street frankly. Grayish teeth tend to be that color throughout the entire tooth and not the result of yellowing or discoloring stains from smoking, coffee etc. The majority of those people who have this color problem have it as a result of antibiotics, such as tetrocycline, that they were prescribed as small children while their permanent teeth were forming internally. Then when their permanent teeth come in, they are discolored in this way. Doctors are now aware of this and no longer prescribe the type of antibiotics that cause this when prescribing for small children. My grayish teeth are the result of exactly this occurance. They are great teeth, never a cavity even until this day, but they are gray-toned and would not have been otherwise. My baby teeth were white, but the antibiotics did the damage years before my permanent teeth appeared in my mouth.
I worked in a dental laboratory for eight years and this discoloration problem was common. It has been a few years since I worked there, but again, as far as I am aware there is no whitening or bleaching process that can do a great deal of good for this type of discoloration. Inexpensive options like strips aren't going to break the bank if you try them, but please make sure that if you are going to try teeth bleaching through your dentist ask lots of questions if you have graying teeth before spending money on expensive dental procedures such as the common professional dental bleaching method. I am not up on laser options so I can't comment on its possible effectiveness, but many dentists will through ignorance or greed put you through procedures that will not work. I know because it happened to me. I had my doubts on the possible benefits of this sort of professional dental bleaching, but I wanted a solution so much that I allowed myself to be convinced against my better judgement that it could help. Well it did absolutely nothing. Three hundred dollars at that time blown. And this was a reputable and well-known dentist who either as I mentioned above didn't know any betther or liked taking my money. The research I did into the subject after this informed me fairly plainly that whitening strips and normal dental bleaching procedures did not work on gray teeth. I should have looked it up earlier of course, but you know what they say about hindsight. I can't say that no one with this discoloration problem has never been helped at all by these methods, but if so they are by far the extreme exceptions to the rule.
I don't want to be a complete downer and nay-sayer because there are of course other options for helping and correcting graying teeth discoloration including bonding, veneers etc. Alternatives are out there, but I wanted to let you know if this is your discoloration problem do your homework and be aware and informed before beginning whitening processes. |
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Fri Dec 10, 2004 8:14 pm |
Marella thanks for the caveat and sorry to hear about your bad experience. But your experience can be very informative to those who have discolouration due to previous antibiotic treatments. I was advised by my dentist that as we age, our teeth become more transparent and hence appear to be discoloured.
I've pretty well decided to go ahead and have the professional whitening done after the holidays. So we shall see.........
Anya |
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Fri Dec 10, 2004 9:31 pm |
I've used Crest Strip 3 times (not 2 a day, not even everyday), but I can already see the effect.  Very impressive! It does give some unpleasant taste and a little headache after 20 min use. But, it’s tolerable and I highly recommend to anyone who wants something off the shelves. |
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Sat Dec 11, 2004 12:22 am |
Anya,
My treatment was quite a few years ago now and I was attempting in my post to just put a bit of information out there that a lot of people aren't really aware of and to note that those folks with grayish discolorations should ask questions and be as informed as possible in their options. But somehow it ended up being a heck of a lot longer post than I had planned and sounding a bit dire. Actually I'm planning on giving a different method a go and having my teeth done again sometime this year myself even. I'm so sorry if I sounded like Debbie Downer running on about the evils of TEETH. Now that I look at the time of my post, I also see that it was after midnight and I was quite possibly more than half asleep. Best of luck on your treatment. |
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Mabsy
Moderator
Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Posts: 9644
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Sat Dec 11, 2004 5:21 am |
| marella wrote: |
I don't want to be a complete downer and nay-sayer because there are of course other options for helping and correcting graying teeth discoloration including bonding, veneers etc. Alternatives are out there, but I wanted to let you know if this is your discoloration problem do your homework and be aware and informed before beginning whitening processes. |
I'm glad you posted this, but I would also like to add that you can still get *some* whitening even if your teeth have been discoloured by the use of tetrocycline. Like you, I am one of those kids that was given a *lot* of tetrocycline, and yes, my teeth definitely show it now even though they didn't at the time. But teeth also stain from a number of other causes (tea, coffee etc etc) and while my teeth will never be white (at least not through whitening) they are actually significantly lighter after whitening because whitening removes the "other" stains (if you have them).
The problem complicating my case is that I have had *heaps* of fillings (probably caused by osteoporosis - but that's another novel in itself ). These of course are matched to the shade of your teeth at the time they are done - so if you whiten afterwards ... well let's just say that it's not a good idea for some So, you'd think that veneers would be the perfect solution - that's what I thought. Turns out I was wrong. According to my dentist (and a 2nd opinion) some of my teeth have had so many fillings that they would be too weak for a veneer (because they have to file the surface of your tooth down).... Solution? Well I was given another option but it didn't sound too pretty and was also *very* expensive  |
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Sat Dec 11, 2004 11:52 am |
Mabsy
I'll probably go the bonding route just because veneers scare me a bit. They grind your own teeth down to some degree of course before you get them and the veneers do look great when you get them on. But again that working in the dental lab thing gets me. Sometimes the things just come off for whatever reason. I have this horrible picture in my mind of being on vacation somewhere wonderful and exotic-only a picture because I don't really get to those wonderful and exotic places. But anyway, me a beach, my husband if he is good, and then I lose a veneer, one of those right in front of course, so there I sit on my beautiful vacation with this freaky looking ground down tooth.
Of course, I think too much, and as I said they do look great. I gotta stop that thinking. |
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