Teeth whitening procedures do not always entail a commitment to spending many hours in a dentist's chair. Tooth whitening can be done at home, if the patient with the off-colored teeth has obtained a custom-fitted tray. It is, however, the process of obtaining such a tray that can require the patient to spend many hours in a dentist's chair.



Perhaps the reader thinks that the patient must sit in the dentist's chair and watch a video on how to whiten teeth. No, that is not the way that the patient follows through with his or her desire to do tooth beaching at home. The patient must sit in the dentist's chair while the dentist makes an impression of the patients' teeth.

Any reader who has had braces might well remember sitting in the chair of an orthodontist, and having an impression made of his or her teeth. The same basic procedure is used by the dentist who needs to make a custom-fitted tray for a patient. The patient is going to put the tray over his or her teeth.

The tray itself does not posses some magical powers, powers that allow it to whiten teeth. The teeth whitening products that the tray applies to and holds on the teeth are what allow for the completion of tooth bleaching at home. Those products remain in contact with the patient's teeth for one to two hours each day.

In order to appreciate the ability of gel to act in the home setting, one must realize that natural light contains a certain a small amount of energy. Over time, that energy can change the color of certain substances. Take, for example, a newspaper, which is printed on newsprint. Over time, that newspaper begins to turn yellow. Chemicals in the newsprint respond to the energy in the natural light.

The yellowing of a newspaper does not occur overnight. A newspaper becomes yellow slowly, after a long exposure to natural light. In the same way, the home bleaching technique does not give fast results. The patient must expose his or her teeth to the bleach periodically and repeatedly. Such exposure promises the slow and gradual whitening of the teeth.

Home bleaching is not a good solution for someone who is in a hurry. In fact, speed can reduce the chances that a patent will have success with home bleaching. Suppose, for example, that a dentist rushes to make an impression, and thus makes a poor impression.

If a dentist makes a poor impression, then he or she can not make a good-fitting tray. If a patient feels uncomfortable while wearing a tray on his or her teeth, that patient is apt to reduce the amount of time when the tray stays on the teeth. That then reduces the amount of time that the teeth are exposed to the tooth whitening product.

A patient who feels uncomfortable while wearing t a custom-fitted tray should take the time to return to the dentist's office, and to have the tray re-fitted. Only in that way can a patient feel certain that he or she will show a willingness to wear the tray the needed amount of time. Then the patient will enjoy seeing a slow and gradual transformation of his or her smile.

Because home bleaching does not bring quick results, it does not invite a lot of questions from friends and co-workers. They don't realize why they are focusing less frequently on the wrinkles on someone else's face. They don't know that the white smile on that face has drawn their attention, and has stolen the attention once given to the wrinkles or other blemishes that continue to exist on the now smiling face.