Cosmetic Teeth Whitening In America
Over the past years, the American quest for a brighter smile has been a long and winding road. In the eighteenth century, they used ammonia and chlorine to whiten teeth. Dentists would use hydrogen peroxide before baking teeth under a heat lamp, as recently as the 1950s.
Such outdated methods were quite physically torturing, not to mention too expensive, to get much popularity. Modern technology definitely brought a great change to teeth whitening, which now became a common practice. Americans last year spent more than $250 million to bleach, zap, cap or otherwise whiten their smiles, and the amount is expected to grow steadily in the coming years.
It’s a win-win situation for dentists and patients. In order to whiten the teeth and maximize the treatment, a patient wears a mouth guard with peroxide gel every day for two straight weeks. The simplest peroxide bleaching is present the most popular teeth whitener used. The treatments are still too expensive, priced from $200 to $500, and that’s a fact.
Few clinics use laser treatment to activate the peroxide gel that is previously applied to the patient’s teeth. Though it definitely faster. The results from a week or more wearing a mouth guard can be produced with one sitting in a laser treatment, provided you are with a trained dentist who has the proper equipments.
Even though laser treatment costs up to $100 or more per tooth, nobody minds the cost at all since the process is faster and easier. Although bleaching sure is promising, the stains may eventually return, making it a reversible process. Ceramic veneers beg to differ. As well as whitening your smile, the application of thin ceramic layers, which costs $500 to $800 per tooth, fixes irregularities found in the shape of the underlying teeth.
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. It’s good news for dentists, and a bad news to patients. It can be a good opportunity to extend a dentist’s expertise and practice by doing more elective services like teeth whitening. To summarize all of that, since managed care has taken hold of dentistry, dentists were able to put even brighter smile on their faces, metaphorically, for all the benefits they acquired.
During the past couple of years, it hasn’t been easy for the Americans to pursue that brighter smile. To whiten teeth, people used ammonia and chlorine back in the 1800. To whiten teeth in the 1950s, dentists used hydrogen peroxide concentrated solutions, and baked the teeth under a heat lamp.
All in all, these didn’t quite get enough popularity since they are expensive and physically unnerving. The quest encountered great change, and it became nearly too easy for the Americans now to get brighter and whiter teeth. In 2010, we’ve spent over $250 million on teeth whitening products and treatments, but that’s not the end of story. It’s still expected to grow steadily in the coming years.
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