Well, there are two main ingredients that make the basic tooth whitening gel and that is made of bleaching agents which act on the stains that are found on the teeth. Normally the bleaching agents are carbamide peroxide and hydrogen peroxide ? either of these. The higher the concentration of these bleaching agents ? which starts at about 10% and can go upto 30% - the faster and better the results. This is however proportionate to the risk of damage to the teeth and gums.
2. What are the ingredients of the teeth whitening gel?
As mentioned above the carbamide peroxide and hydrogen peroxide (either of these) make the basic ingredients of this solution/ gel. The difference between these two ingredients is the way they act of the stains. While the hydrogen peroxide is fast acting bleaching agent which shows almost instant results needs to be used for about 20-30 minutes every night over a week or two for the best effect. The carbamide peroxide on the other hand is of lower strength - but that limits the possibility of harm caused to the teeth and gums unlike the other harsher peroxide agents.
The best gels would be in the concentration of 10-20% though there are solutions which contain 30% of carmadine peroxide which definitely is very potent. However, since it has a very high potential risk it is best to use such solutions only under the supervision of a dentist. For home use products, one should choose only those which have maximum 16% strength.
3. What is Carbamide Peroxide and how it works?
Carbamide peroxide is a lower strength (lower than other peroxides) bleaching agent which is recommended for teeth whitening because it does not pose any harm to the teeth or the gums. This particular bleaching agent is very safe comparatively. Whenever you would find any side effects, this would most often be cause by the wrong use of the gel rather than anything else.
Carbamide peroxide reduces stains with great efficiency. However, the whitening effect that it produces is not due to ?wiping off? the stains. What the solution does is reduces oxygen to the stains which makes them less visible. This is why nowadays the gels available in the market have added an oxidizing agent to the gel for better results.
This is an extremely safe way to clean teeth and this is why most dentists approve and use this method for professional teeth whitening process.
To summarize, the carbamide peroxide is a soft oxidizing agent that is used to whiten the teeth by basically adding molecules of oxygen to the stains. As a result, the stains are reduced gradually. This is why the first time teeth whitening should be done by a professional hand. Subsequently you could use DIY kits to maintain the whiteness.
It is important that you do the first time with the dentist for another reason as well ? this is because the dentist would be able to find whether there are any flaws in the teeth before the bleaching agent is applied. The dentist would also be able to repair the flaws that are found so the bleaching agent would harm the teeth or the gum.
