Over the past years, the American quest for a brighter smile has been a long and winding road. Back in the 1800, did you know that people used ammonia and chlorine to achieve the same whitening effects on teeth? In the fifties, dentists would baste patient’s choppers in a concentrate made of hydrogen peroxide, and then baking them under a heat lamp.
Aside from the risks and physical discomfort, those methods were too expensive, hence not so popular. Today, a bevy of gentler and more affordable options has made teeth whitening a common practice, satisfying Americans’ quest for an appealing and attractive smile. Last year, Americans spent more than $250 million to buy zap, caps, bleach or otherwise on teeth whitening procedures.
It’s a win-win situation for dentists and patients. A lot like home treatments, the patient wears a specially made mouth guard with peroxide gel, every day for about two straight weeks, in order to whiten the teeth. Simple peroxide bleaching is, as of now, the most popular and widely used whitening agent. Even though peroxide is used, the treatment can still range from $200 to $500.
After applying a peroxide based gel, very few clinics use laser treatments to activate the teeth whitening effect. The laser’s benefit is speed. With a properly trained dentist and the right equipments, you can have a laser treatment give you the same effects that would have taken several weeks with a mouth guard.
Though still expensive, generally $100 or more per tooth, the technique is going to grow because the process is so much faster and so much easier than doing it at home. While bleaching is a so called reversible process where stains will eventually return to the tooth’s surface, ceramic veneers have emerged as an alternative to caps. Here in this process, which costs $500 to $800 per tooth, a dentist would use a ceramic layer to cover the tooth, which provides a whiter color. Sometimes it even fixes the irregularities in the shape.
Except in the case of veneers, where treatment may be necessary to repair a tooth chipped in an accident, for example, most teeth whitening procedures are considered cosmetic and as such are not covered by dental insurance. Dentists are pleased to know that, while patients are not. There’s no question that elective services like teeth whitening are going to be a real good thing as far as building a practice is concerned in an age of managed care. Indeed, as managed care has taken hold in dentistry as it has in other fields of medicine, teeth whitening and other cosmetic procedures will be one of the few reasons dentists end up smiling themselves.
More expert dentistry information is located at laser teeth whitening. Further advice on dentistry is found at teeth whitening laser.