Teeth whitening has been surrounded by controversy for some time – on one hand, it’s a useful procedure that can greatly improve a person’s quality of life by giving them a confidence boost; but on the other, this is only really true when it’s done by a licensed professional. There are lots of “do it yourself” teeth whitening solutions available on the market, often with no prescription whatsoever, but more and more dentists are coming out to advise against the use of those products, especially by people who have no idea what they’re doing.
And yet, despite that and the fact that these DIY kits have been in the media for all the wrong reasons lately, some people continue to rely on them for maintaining their smile white and shiny. So much, in fact, that in some cases it’s been described as an addiction, along with all the harmful side effects that come from one.
When overdone, teeth whitening can have some harmful permanent effects on the human body, causing a person’s gums to blister, the teeth to become overly sensitive, and it can even start to degrade the visual quality of a smile after some time due to those problems. What’s the point in having white teeth if everything around them looks terrible?
It can also eat into a person’s daily time significantly. A single teeth whitening procedure, when done at home, can take several hours to complete, and some people are reportedly doing this as often as once a week or even more. Other than the fact that this is obviously not healthy in the long run, it’s also been reported to cause some actual social issues for those people, as they’ve been finding it harder and harder to balance their constant need for a perfect white smile with various social arrangements.
Those arrangements become more difficult as well when the person is just fresh out of another bleaching procedure, and as a result their mouth is overly sensitive and easily irritated by any type of food or drink. It’s no fun going out with someone who can’t even drink a glass of water, and yet some people apparently find it more important to have the most perfect smile than to be able to put something in their mouths.
Is this problem eventually going to spin out of control? It has all the indications of something on the way to such a conclusion – and sadly, unless something changes about the legality of DIY teeth whitening kits, people are likely going to continue using them and disregarding the dangers attached. There have been talks in the media lately about the need to change the laws, but nothing has come out of that so far.