Whether you’re a smoker, coffee drinker, chocolate eater, or simply just a victim of time’s unavoidable effects, odds are your teeth aren’t as white as they could be. If you want to brighten up that smile and go the whitening route, there are many avenues you can explore. But which works best – professional cleaning or home remedies?

You can literally find dental whitening services everywhere. Even on a classified site like americanlisted.com, you will find multiple money-off coupons for professional whitening procedures; and if you ever pay attention to the retail stores, you’ll find dozens upon dozens of home-use whitening products.

Each has its benefits and each has its drawbacks. Let’s start first with professional cleaning.

Professional cleaning yields the best results in the least amount of time. Usually with one visit, a dentist—or dental care professional—is able to achieve great results. But this can get very expensive. You might have to put up your car or furniture for sale in order to pay off the bill, and odds are good that insurance isn’t going to cover you.

Next up, we have the home products. While these are very effective and certainly less expensive, their results are anything but instant. With those whitening strips and gels and other products, it takes repeated usage. This is bad if you can’t break the coffee habit.

So it all boils down to what your personal preference is. If you don’t mind waiting a few weeks and won’t spoil the results with any harmful substances, then home products are probably your best bet. You’ll save a lot of money and get the same results.

If you want speedy results, though, a professional is the way to go. Sure, you might have to join the list of people with cars and computers for sale in Arizona or Nebraska in order to pay for it, but it’s a simple in-and-out procedure that yields results on the first visit.

Teeth-whitening is such a popular procedure that Americans alone spend billions of dollars annually on dentist visits and on over-the-counter whitening products. Whether you’re a smoker, heavy coffee-drinker, or if you simply don’t have that illuminating white glow you see on the TV and in magazines, there are countless products out there that can help you and numerous procedures that can instantly whiten your teeth.

However, as we have learned from some patients in Connecticut, only skilled professionals should be offering some types of treatments.

Recently, the Connecticut Dental Commission voted to ban whitening procedures carried out by any individual who is not a qualified dentist or hygienist. Connecticut is the first state to do so, but if we have learned anything about the United States through its history, it’s that other states quickly follow the lead of a trendsetter.

The problem arose from some of the dangers involved with teeth-whitening laser procedures. In unskilled hands, the irreversible laser procedures can cause a lot more harm than good if done incorrectly or if the patient has oral conditions that may complicate the procedure.

Only a schooled dentist or hygienist can spot certain types of oral conditions and make the final call on whether or not a laser treatment should be given. Having just anyone administer the laser treatment can cause permanent damage, and that’s something the dental board in Connecticut is not willing to abide.

What this Means for You

Unless you’re a Connecticut resident, you may be thinking that this doesn’t concern you. But it should. The dangers associated with laser surgery should be made aware to all individuals wanting to have their teeth whitened.

That’s not to say that teeth-whitening is dangerous in general. It isn’t. But the procedure cannot be reversed, not to even mention the high cost of such a procedure.

For anyone looking to have bright, shiny teeth, your best bet is to choose an over-the-counter method to get the job done. Whether you’re opting for strips, specialized toothpastes, creams, mouth-pieces, or any other treatment, the cost is a lot lower, the products are more assessable, and there are significantly fewer risks associated with OTC treatments.

Tooth enamel is essentially bone. And while it can wear away completely, the vast majority of over-the-counter products are safe to use when used as the manufacturer suggests. You should never go overboard and use the whitening products to excess. You can cause gum damage and enamel damage. But when used moderately, it is simply a smarter move to shop your own whitening sources rather than seeing a professional—or maybe a hack with a laser!—in order to have your teeth whitened.

That ties in the overall theme here – popularity. Having a bright, healthy smile is important to almost everyone, and whether your smile isn’t all it can be due to smoking or drinking coffee or lack or care or simply genetics, the popular remedy today is to use teeth-whitening products. But do they really work?

A Closer Look at Whiteners

Ingredients

Most over-the-counter whiteners, whether we’re speaking about strips or gels, have relatively the same ingredient base that a professional dentist would use. The recipes aren’t always exact and the dentist may have a few more tricks up his or her sleeve, but the active ingredients are usually very similar, and teeth whiteners produce such great results that sales numbers are going up by millions each month, even in a shoddy economy.

Cost Effectiveness

The price is what’s most appealing to some people. The average trip to the dentist for a one-time whitening can be very expensive, and the odds that your insurance covers it are slim to none. Whitening is an elective procedure, so, on pricing alone, whitening products “work” in a big way for millions of consumers.

Ease of Use

This is always something to be considered when you think about how well whiteners actually work for consumers. Most whiteners come in either strips or gels, able to be put on easily at night. It’s as simple as putting the product on and refraining from eating or drinking for a while.

There’s no sitting in a chair and having some stranger poke and prod at your teeth and gums with sharp instruments and alien-like laser lights. You put the product on and get on with your life.

Overall, over-the-counter teeth-whitening products are working to put some dentists out of business completely. Not only do whiteners provide tangible results for almost everyone who uses the products correctly, but they’re also far less expensive, easier to use, do not cause any pain or discomfort, and have zero side effects if used correctly.

It’s hard for a dentist to compete with the whitening products on the market today. It’s almost like going to a book store and paying for a novel if you can get it online for free and read it on your Kindle.

The dentist isn’t a totally antiquated option; you still need cavities taken care of and braces put on. But for teeth whitening, the dentist is certainly starting to go the way of the dodo.

If you need to fight a quick battle against the bulge, liposuction is always there for you. If your eyes go bad, LASIK can set you back on track. And if years of coffee, cigarettes and lapsed brushing habits leave your teeth looking a few shades off pearly white, you can fix that with a slew of whiteners on the market.

Be careful, though – there is such a thing as too much whitening.

If you’re one of the many people out there with a less than perfect smile, you may look around at everyone else’s white teeth and wonder why genetics didn’t bless you or why others do not struggle to keep their teeth white. But don’t spend too much time on that thought.

According to statistics from the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD), residents of the US alone spend in excess of $1.4 billion every single year on teeth whitening products.

Simply put, that means millions upon millions of people are using teeth whiteners to jazz up their chompers! And that number does not even include all the trips taken to the dentist’s office for professional procedures.

Some people can absolutely become addicted to teeth whitening, so make sure you’re using the products as suggested and are not abusing them. It may seem rather trite, but whitener abuse can irreparably damage your gums and teeth.

Risks Associated with Over-Whitening

Over-whitening, depending on the product used, can speed up receding gum lines and can cause sensitivity. And if you have an open area on your tooth, like a cavity, the bleach from a product can travel inside and potentially hit the nerve, thus causing the tooth to die. Dead teeth are brown and there’s no coming back from that.

Always make sure that you’re limiting OTC whitener kits to six-month cycles, and take it easy with whitener toothpastes, as they can be very harsh.

Signs You May be Over-Whitening

• Sensitivity of your tooth enamel
• Hot and cold sensitivity with your teeth
• A bluish translucent ring around the edges of your teeth
• Red, blotchy irritated gums

A lot of the over-the-counter whitening products today are using ingredients that aren’t as harsh as when whiteners first arrived on the scene. But most are still using bleach as an ingredient to get your teeth white. Bleach can cause problems for your teeth if you overuse it, no matter how often you brush, floss and rinse.

Always make sure that you’re not abusing whitening products. If you need to use whiteners often, then you may need to give up other habits that are causing discoloration in your teeth.