I can’t believe that this is the first blog I have written about teeth! Because in real life, I am a registered dental nurse with over 30 years experience.
Today’s post is really about informing you about some things that might save you money in the long term with regards maintaining and enhancing your teeth.
I am not a fan of the “American Smile”, where all teeth are toilet bowl white and so uniform, that they look completely unnatural. It never ceases to amaze me that so many people want to look exactly the same as each other. Vive la difference!
That aside, there are a lot of things that can be done to improve your smile. One quite simple thing, is to whiten your teeth. There are lots of programmes and information out there with various methods for whitening teeth. In my experience, the cheapest and MOST effective way is to have whitening trays made by a dentist, and to do the whitening at home yourself. A lot of practices advocate the use of laser/zoom whitening and claim that the teeth will go 6 shades lighter in one sitting. I have to say that I haven’t found this to be the case. Also, this treatment usually comes with the patient being given home trays to continue the process at home. I would say, save yourself the expense of the laser treatment and just go for the home trays.
The problem with the laser whitening is that it dehydrates the teeth temporarily, making them look lighter than they are. Also the cost of laser whitening is way more expensive than just for home trays,
In the practice that I work in, we use a whitening gel that contains 16% carbamide peroxide, and usually a week of whitening for an hour a day, will lighten the teeth by several shades.
Something else that bothers me, is the electric toothbrush. Don’t get me wrong, I am an avid supporter of the electric toothbrush, but it is the crazy prices that are being charged for them. A while ago, many bloggers were featuring a new toothbrush that all the bells and whistles, it connected to your i-phone and told you how well you were doing in the tooth cleaning department. This is all well and good, but at around £300 for a brush that is in effect, just the same as a £30 brush I found quite amazing. Anyway, I would say, save your money and get a cheaper brush.
Probably the best thing to do to keep a healthy smile, is to visit your dentist and hygienist every six months, clean your teeth at least twice a day (especially before bed), limit your sugar intake to prevent cavities.
I would be happy to answer any questions that you have with regard to this blog.
Have a great week.
lots of love, Gail xxx
gailhenderson.blog 
I’m with you on the toothbrush front! Using an electric one made all the difference to me, but there’s no way I’d buy one that was huge money! I had my teeth whitened a few years ago due to a few different things – like breaking my veneer, which would’ve been fine except for the tooth it was covering and…well it’s a big long story. I must say it was nice to have the sparkly white teeth for my wedding, I tend to drink a lot of black tea and coffee so the staining is back. I used the gel trays and they did a great job. Dental hygiene for the win…which reminds me, I really must book in to have my teeth checked!
thanks for commenting Aine xx
Electric all the way and great 👍🏼 advice loved the blog post x
Thanks guys xxx
I’m absolutely terrified of the dentist! My legs knock together as soon as I’m in the chair! I actually turned down some posh replacements a while back for sponsoring too.
I’m interested in the whitening trays Gail. I will look into ingredients because I’m a multi-allergy sufferer. But I could cope with this and dream of cleaner looking teeth. I do have them cleaned at the dentist but I would love to try whitening.
Laurie xx
I know being terrified of the dentist is a problem for many people. This usually stems from bad experiences in childhood- it certainly was for me. But dentistry has moved on a lot since then thankfully. Xxx
Hi Gail! Did you change the look of your blog? It looks fantastic 🙂 I didn’t know you’re a dental nurse. This is all great advice xo
Yes I did. So glad you like it Christy xx
‘Toilet bowl white’ 😭😭😭😭is the best thing I’ve read all year xxx
Haha 😆