Teeth whitening: don’t over-bleach your teeth!

*** Embrace the NEW year ***

Photo by Tatiana

I’m really (REALLY) not a fan of the long-running Friends series, but for some reason I did watch the episode where Ross whitened his teeth to the point where they glowed in the dark and scared his date away.

That is EXACTLY what you want to avoid when it comes to teeth whitening. You want them to look clean and spotless, but not artificial. A dentist gave me a quick and easy trick to determine how white your teeth should be: they should be the same shade as the white of your eyes. If they are as white as your porcelain skin … then they are simply too white.

Another reason why you want to avoid over-bleaching is that you want to avoid the translucency of your teeth and you also want to avoid damaging your gums.

While translucency may sound attractive, it actually is not … especially when overdoing it can cause your teeth to get darker because the translucency of the enamel allows the inside of the tooth to show through!

It’s a fact of life and a fact of aging – the dentin within the tooth naturally gets darker as you age. If you reach a teeth-whitening plateau, you might need to consult with your dentist and you may have to look at other options to achieve the level of teeth-whiteness you are seeking.