The consumers wanting to have whiter teeth are restless and the companies producing them, relentless. One of the newest over-the counter treatment is the ready-to-use light-activated tooth whitening kit.
The kit consists of a plastic mouthpiece which is easily accommodated into most mouths with minimal or no pain. There are flimsy strips coated with 6% hydrogen peroxide. These strips need to be placed in the mouthpiece. The hydrogen peroxide is what does the bleaching and the light catalyses it to make the whitening reaction faster and deeper.
The characteristic foamy make-up of the strips ensures good contact of all the teeth surfaces with the bleach. After placing in the mouth, the light is turned by a button and needs to be kept for about 20 minutes in a still mouth.
So doing this while you are doing some other physical activity is a good idea. The blue pulsating light helps do the cleaning after which one can remove the mouthpiece and discard the strips. One must not forget to rinse the mouth thoroughly to get rid of any traces of the peroxide. There is no bad taste but an almost pleasant minty aftertaste like diluted toothpaste.
The treatment needs to be done for 5 days and results observed thereafter. The cost of a 5 day therapy costs around $40.
Most people seem to benefit significantly after the 1st and 2nd day treatments but not much on the remaining 3 days. Side-effects have been surprisingly minimal.
A drawback to the light activated tooth whitening kit is the lack of availability of strip refills. One has to buy the entire kit after each use increasing the overall expenditure. Also it’s not so easily available in the American market as in its European counterparts.
Thus all in all it seems a worth try and an effective innovative introduction to the teeth whitening products market.Read our review of Smile 4 You which uses this teeth whitening method
