I have wanted my teeth whitened for quite awhile now and although my teeth have never been particularly yellow; my numerous cups of tea a day were making them look quite dull. We are bombarded by images of celebrities on a daily basis who have blindingly white teeth, so the trend to have them brightened, whitened and polished is more popular than ever.
You might be reading this and thinking ‘well what about high street products’, which of course is a less drastic solution to having your teeth whitened. However, I’ll quite happily admit that I have tried pretty much every product on the market to date (except Crest Whitening Strips) and despite sticking to the instructions (well, mostly) I haven’t really had much lasting success with any product. Probably one of the best toothpastes to use is any from the Pearl Drops range (Hollywood Smile works well assuming you use it twice daily). There is a noticeable difference within a week, however if you don’t use it constantly – the effect fades quite rapidly.
Being the impatient person I am, I wanted a quick, easy and immediate teeth whitening fix whereby I would enter a salon/clinic/etc with my dull teeth and exit again blinding everyone in my path with my new white teeth. In hindsight, I think this was a bit of an idealistic view of teeth whitening, as the healthiest and safest means of whitening involves wearing a whitening tray each night with Carbamide gel in.
I chose to go to world renowned Harley Street for my teeth whitening treatment and visited Dr Dana Vieru, who specialises in emergency dentistry and teeth makeovers (veneers, whitening, polishing etc). She is a very lovely lady who made me feel extremely welcome in her practice and explained to me in detail about the Carbamide Whitening Process, which is the safest way of whitening your teeth and doesn’t cause any sensitivity at all. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really contribute to the conversation as I had a very flattering mouth opener thingy (technical term) wedging my teeth together, in order to apply the gel without touching the gums.
With regards to the process itself, it is completely pain free and the only negative bit is the waiting around (for the gel to take its course). Some people experience tingling sensations, but I didn’t really feel anything in the way of sensitivity or tingling – so can’t really comment on this. The overall process took around 2 hours or so, which mainly consisted of waiting around with gel on my teeth. It is quite uncomfortable, as it is fairly hard to swallow whilst your teeth are being wedged together – however the gel is non toxic and won’t damage your stomach lining (so despite fretting) you can swallow normally. The gel is applied and washed off about three times (with 15 minute waiting intervals) however all good dental clinics will want to do a check-up before the process takes place in order to check you are suitable for the whitening process and don’t have any decay/erosion.
Dana explained to me that the most effective way of whitening was the home trays, so she took moulds of my mouth (to be made up into trays) and sent them off to the technician. I haven’t of yet received the trays/gel so I can’t report on the effectiveness of this process; however I will be sure to let you all know when I do.
The final result of the whitening wasn’t quite what I expected but I’m still very pleased I went through with the treatment as they are certainly an improvement on before. The photographs were taken the day before the treatment and the day after the treatment, so they are accurate to when I had the whitening done. As you can see, there is a definite improvement in the colour of my teeth and they are much brighter than they were previously. Since I took the photograph my teeth have dulled down quite a bit, which is a little disappointing as I wasn’t expecting it to dull down so quickly however, as I’ve said – I haven’t yet tried out the trays, so perhaps these will brighten them out a little more.
The Carbamide Whitening Treatment costs £200 and I had my appointment with Dr Dana Vieru (website here). She is a really lovely lady who makes you feel very at ease and comfortable with the process. If you are looking to have the treatment done and live in or around London, I’d definitely recommend a visit or a consultation.
** I have quite a few ‘teeth whitening’ based posts planned for the next few weeks, so if you are interested in the topic make sure you keep your eyes peeled for updates! Alternatively, you can subscribe to my blog (there is a button that allows you to sign up to updates on my sidebar). If you have any questions about teeth whitening, please feel free to leave them in the comments box below or email me.
