I want to whiten my teeth fast for a special event I have coming up. I tried rinsing my teeth with peroxide every day, which is what I believe dentists use, but that didn’t work. Would Clorox bleach work better?

Karla

Dear Karla,

Let’s first talk about why the peroxide didn’t work. There are two factors missing from your peroxide regiment that made it unsuccessful. The first is the strength of the peroxide. The over-the-counter peroxide you get is a 3% peroxide concentration. The gel that dentists use contains between 25 – 33% peroxide. This is a much more effective way to whiten your teeth.

You can’t actually purchase that strength because of federal regulations. They want to protect patients from harming themselves because there are a few things that can go wrong at that strength without a dentist to keep an eye on things. A second issue that caused it to be ineffective is the length of time. In order for the whitening to take effect, the peroxide has to be on your teeth a minimum of 20 minutes for it to seep in. I don’t know anyone who could swish peroxide on their teeth for that long.

This is why dentists use bleaching trays, such as the one pictured above. The trays keep the teeth whitening gel on your teeth for the length of time you desire. They also protect your gums and the remainder of your mouth from being affected by the gel.

This leads me to your question about Clorox. This product is a base. It can destroy/burn living tissue. To illustrate this, many dentists use household bleach during root canal treatments. Its active ingredient is sodium hypochlorite which dentists use to eat away the debris left over and clean out the tooth.

My suggestion if you want fast teeth whitening is to go see a dentist who offers Zoom Whitening. This will whiten your teeth in just one appointment, while keeping your gums safe.

This blog is brought to you by Hoffman Estates Dentist Dr. William Becker.