Whiten Your Teeth For Less!

Who doesn't want whiter teeth??  Well, unless you're Ross in the Friends episode where he leaves the paste on for a day too long :).  All jokes aside, having a beautiful smile complemented by nice, white teeth can be as much (if not more) of a game changer as any makeup product.  I had never paid that much attention to teeth whitening until about a month before my wedding two years ago when one day, I suddenly realized "Oh crap!  I need to whiten my teeth!"  I bought some Crest Whitestrips (which are not cheap!) and used them almost daily right up to my wedding day.  Sadly, I didn't notice much of a difference, and I really wish I had known about the product I use now before I got married.

That product is Plus White Premier 5 Minute Speed Whitening Gel.  There are a couple options in this line.  You can either buy a kit that includes the gel, a post-whitening rinse (although now it looks like it comes with a pre-whitening rinse), and a double-sided tray, or you can just buy the gel itself.  I have seen this brand at Wal-Mart and on drugstore.com.  The kit runs about $8 to $10, and the gel itself is around $5 or $6.  The first time I bought this, I bought the kit.  The tray it comes with is pretty worthless and doesn't really stay in place well, so I bought a couple basic mouthguards at Wal-Mart and followed the instructions to make my own trays (one for the top and one for the bottom) that fit my mouth perfectly.  They only cost about $0.97 each and work really well.

As far as using the product itself, you first floss and brush your teeth, then you squeeze a thin layer of gel onto the trays and leave them in for 5-20 minutes.  The instructions say to do this twice a day for up to two weeks when you're first starting out with this system, and that is exactly what I did.  If you have the kit, you then follow up with the rinse after you remove the trays (at least I did--it has changed to a pre-whitening rinse since I last had the kit).  Unfortunately, I don't really have any before and after pictures to show (I forgot to take them when I started using this over a year ago), but I saw a huge difference after about a week.  I left mine in for about 15 minutes each time.  After the two weeks are over, you use the product once or twice a week to touch up.  I do twice a week for 15 minutes, and I find that to be sufficient to maintain the results from the first two weeks.

After having used this product for over year, I definitely recommend buying the gel alone if it's available.  The rinse didn't seem to make any difference.  I can't speak to the effectiveness of the new pre-whitening rinse, but I can tell you that the results without using any rinse are very good. You will also most likely need to buy your own trays anyway, so it's not worth buying the kit for the tray.  It is worth noting that as with any whitening product, this can make your teeth more sensitive.  Mine feel a little sensitive the day after I whiten, but it doesn't bother me.  If you are concerned about this, you might want to try the gel made for sensitive teeth.  I also want to mention that if you get a lot of canker sores like I do, be very careful when using this product while you have one.  If the gel comes into contact with a canker sore or any other sort of trauma in your mouth, it HURTS!  I definitely recommend using Kanka, Orajel, or any other type of numbing product before using the whitening gel if you have a sore.  Another tip I have is to run the trays under water and use your toothbrush to make sure you get all the gel off after you use them.

Overall thoughts?  I love this stuff!  It's easily accessible, it's cheap, and most importantly, it works!  I would highly recommend it.  I hope this was helpful, and let me know if you try it out!