How to Whiten Your Teeth at Home

There are several ways to whiten your teeth at home using products that are available in the market. Here are some easy, and inexpensive pointers to whiten your teeth, without having to head over to your dentist's for expensive whitening treatments.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Crest Whitestrips
• Whitening toothpaste
• Electric toothbrush

1. Maintain good dental hygiene by brushing and flossing regularly. Brush twice a day, and rinse your mouth with water every time you eat. An electric toothbrush is more effective at removing plaque than a manual one. A trick that came straight out of my dentist's mouth was to floss in the shower. I haven't missed a day since.

2. 
   Crest Whitestrips

   Use Crest Whitestrips. Several studies, dentist, and consumer reviews (including my own) repeatedly endorse this product. The Whitestrips work by keeping the peroxide gel (which at 6% is pretty potent) directly over your teeth to make them whiter. Simply put, this product works.

3. 
   Listerene prebrush rinse.

   Use a whitening pre-brush rinse from Listerine, or hydrogen peroxide straight out of the bottle (be careful about not ingesting the hydrogen peroxide) to rinse your mouth before you brush your teeth. This step will help you maintain the whiteness you achieved by using the Crest whitestrips.

4. 
   Go Smile Toothpaste

   Use your whitening toothpaste at night for better results. Many of these products claim to loosen up your surface stains at night, that you can brush away in the morning. Some of them contain aromatherapy ingredients to turn nighttime brushing into a soothing routine. Again, whitening toothpastes will only help you maintain whiteness, rather than significantly whitening your teeth on their own.

5. Eat crunchy produce like carrots and apples to keep your smile brighter. The crunch will dislodge plaque causing food particles from your teeth, and prevent stains in the first place.

6. Dentists recommend using a straw to drink up stain causing beverages like tea and coffee. I find this suggestion totally ridiculous! How can you drink a hot liquid with a straw? I would rather rinse out my mouth with water after I drink my coffee straight out of the cup. But I suppose, you could use the straw idea iced tea, coffee, and other seltzers.

Tips & Warnings

• Human teeth were not meant to be snow white.
• Don't get obsessed about teeth whitening.
• Stay away from beige toned lipsticks, they make your teeth look yellow.
• You may end up over sensitizing your teeth if you use bleaching products very often.

Resources

• Testing at home teeth whiteners

[ReuseItAll]

on 1/4/2009 Oh! All good tips for me! I'm glad you can attest to the Crest Whitestrips! I'd love to try them! Thanks!

[georgelarson]

on 1/2/2009 Good information on whitening your teeth. Thanks.