How Much Is Teeth Whitening at Dentist?
Many people in the UK feel self-conscious due to their yellow teeth, which can have a huge impact on their well-being as they become too embarrassed to smile, cover their mouths to laugh or simply become more reclusive. With several different treatments to make your yellow teeth white again, this no longer has to be the case. But some teeth whitening treatments can cost as much as £1000, which is unaffordable for many people, especially given the UK’s cost of living crisis.
So, how much is teeth whitening at the dentist on average and how can you find the right treatment and dental practice for you? Keep reading to find out!
How Does Teeth Whitening Work?
There are several different methods to whiten your teeth, with laser treatment usually being the most expensive, and home bleaching trays usually being the cheapest. However, the most common method of professional teeth whitening at the dentist is by using a special gel and UV light.
If your teeth are suitable for the treatment (teeth whitening is not recommended for people with very sensitive teeth or gums), the dentist will cover your teeth in a gel, usually containing either hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide. You’ll likely recognise hydrogen peroxide from your mouthwash, shampoo or hair dye, as it’s a common ingredient in cleaning products due to its ability to strip away harmful bacteria; both hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide work in this way on our teeth, removing the components that cause the staining on our tooth enamel.
To speed up the process, the dentist will then expose your teeth to UV light, so you can walk out of your appointment with a brand new brilliant white smile.
How Much Does Teeth Whitening Cost – Didsbury Dental Practice
Teeth whitening is a cosmetic procedure so is most often not performed in NHS practices where dental treatment is subsidised. What’s more, since there are different methods of whitening teeth, the price of teeth whitening can vary greatly, from around £20 to £1000. However, professional teeth whitening usually costs £500 on average. Considering £500 is almost a third of the minimum monthly wage in the UK, these high prices can put people off getting their teeth whitened or even visiting the dentist altogether.
That’s why at Didsbury Dental Practice, we aim to make our teeth whitening treatments affordable so anyone can have the chance to beautify their smile and gain their confidence back.
With teeth whitening treatments at the dentist or take-away teeth whitening kits to do at home from £150, you don’t have to worry about budgeting in order to transform your smile and get the confidence you deserve.
Can I Whiten My Teeth At Home?
Although teeth whitening appointments only take up to 60 minutes at the dentist, it’s not always convenient for people to take that time away from work or home. Fortunately, you can whiten your teeth yourself at home!
Just pop into your dental practice, have an impression made of your teeth and take it home with your teeth whitening kit so you can apply the gels to your teeth at a time that suits you. Your dentist will explain everything you need to know about how long to keep the gel on your teeth and how often you should apply it to see results when you purchase your at-home kit, but you’ll have significantly whiter teeth after just a couple of weeks.
Is Teeth Whitening Harmful?
The chemicals used in teeth whitening are strong products that strip away the bacteria and staining agents from your teeth, so it’s illegal in the UK for non-professionals to administer teeth whitening treatments as the utmost care needs to be taken to whiten your teeth safely.
When performed by professionals, however, teeth whitening is perfectly safe. The percentage of peroxide within the gel is controlled and kept to a minimum to safely remove the stains without harming your teeth, and professional dentists will be able to ensure that, either in the practice or in your home, the gels do not come into contact with your gums, as this can sometimes cause sores.
In addition, people with sensitive teeth – caused by a lack of protective enamel on the tooth’s surface – will likely not be recommended teeth whitening treatments. For people with strong teeth, however, teeth whitening can actually have numerous benefits, as removing the components that cause staining can help keep your teeth healthier for longer, as well as boost your self-confidence by making you happy with your smile.
How to Keep Your Teeth White
Having your teeth whitened can give you instant and long-lasting results, however, it’s never a permanent fix. Many factors cause yellowing of the teeth, including:
- Age
- Diet
- Oral Hygiene
- Smoking
- Medication
We can’t stop ourselves from ageing, some medications are essential for our physical or mental well-being and it’s difficult to avoid all foodstuffs with natural staining agents like tannins and chromogens, so it’s perfectly natural for our teeth to lose their whiteness over time. However, there are certain best practices to follow to slow down the yellowing of your teeth, whether you’ve had them professionally whitened or not.
Brush Before Breakfast
A survey by Cartwright and Butler shows a massive 41% of British people can’t function without at least one cup of coffee or tea in the morning, thanks to the beverage’s high caffeine content. But many of these people don’t know that they should be brushing their teeth before they have their first cuppa of the day!
Most people’s breakfasts consist of either:
- Coffee
- Tea
- Fruit juice
- Cereal
- Pastries
- Toast
But these standard breakfast foods are full of sugars and acids – they may give us energy for the day, but they can be extremely harmful to our teeth. By brushing your teeth as soon as you wake up, you’re removing the bacteria in your mouth that has been thriving in the warm, damp environment overnight; otherwise, eating and drinking straight away will give these bacteria sugars to feed on, causing the bacteria to multiply and cause tooth decay.
You might find that your teeth are still yellow even though you brush them twice a day, so try brushing before you eat and see the difference it makes!
Don’t Forget to Floss
Brushing is the best way to remove bacteria from your teeth, however, without flossing, plaque can easily build up in the hard-to-reach gaps between our teeth. Plaque is a build-up of bacteria, so when these deposits form between our teeth, our risk of tooth decay and gum disease is greatly heightened.
Rinsing our mouths with mouthwash and using dental floss to stop plaque from forming between our teeth are essential components of proper oral hygiene to remove harmful bacteria and protect our mouths from harm.
Stop Smoking
With the introduction of health warnings on cigarette packaging, all smokers know the risks to their health from smoking cigarettes, although the addictive properties of nicotine make it difficult to stop smoking without help. However, many people don’t know how damaging smoking is to your teeth.
Regular cigarettes contain at least 15 mg of tar, a sticky substance which coats our teeth causing extrinsic staining and creeps into any cracks to also cause intrinsic staining. This causes rapid yellowing of the teeth, so if you want to keep your pearly whites white, you need to stop smoking.
Get Your Teeth Whitened Today
With affordable teeth whitening services available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Didsbury Dental Practices prides itself on being one of the best private dental practices in the UK.
As well as our teeth whitening services, we also use white fillings so people’s teeth can be unified front to back and you don’t need to worry about how your teeth look when you laugh.
Book your teeth whitening appointment or buy your at-home teeth whitening kit today, so you can brighten up your smile and get the confidence you deserve.
