Teeth Whitening – Sterling Heights, MI
Put the Flash Back in Your Grin
Years of exposure to heavily dyed or pigmented foods and beverages such as berries, dark sauces, coffee, tea, colas, and red wine can leave their mark on your teeth, and many people live with stubborn stains or discoloration that will not respond to conventional oral hygiene methods. At Forever Young Dentistry, we offer take-home teeth whitening kits that can remove these unsightly defects and leave your smile up to eight shades whiter. Here’s a brief guide to teeth whitening treatments at our Sterling Heights office, but please contact our staff if you’d like to learn more.
Why Choose Forever Young Dentistry for Teeth Whitening?
- Conveniently Whiten Your Teeth at Home
- Skilled and Experienced Cosmetic Dentists
- Flexible Financing Options Available
Who is a Good Candidate for Teeth Whitening?
Teeth can develop stains or discoloration due to a range of factors such as frequent exposure to dyes and pigments, genetic conditions, or taking certain medications. Dental stains can be classified as intrinsic, meaning they are located beneath the enamel, or extrinsic, meaning they are located on its surface. Almost anyone with healthy teeth and gums can receive teeth whitening, and most patients who aren’t ready for the treatment can become excellent candidates for it after undergoing procedures to restore their oral health. Due to how it can magnify the beauty of a patient’s smile, teeth whitening can be a particularly excellent treatment for people who wish to be more confident in social or professional settings.
How Does Take-Home Teeth Whitening Work?
At Forever Young Dentistry, we offer take-home whitening kits from Opalescence that deliver results far superior to those of any store-bought teeth-bleaching products. Each treatment is customized to address the patient’s unique needs and preferences, and a kit includes a set of personalized dental trays and a tube of professional-grade whitening gel. You’ll only need to apply the gel to the trays before wearing them over your teeth for about an hour every day for two weeks, and your grin will become progressively whiter over the course of the treatment. When the process is finished, you’ll be left with a remarkably whiter smile.
Tips for Maintaining Your Brighter Smile
The results of teeth whitening can last for several years, but you can maximize their lifespan with a few good habits. Your teeth will be especially vulnerable to developing new stains immediately after whitening, so it’s best to avoid dark foods and beverages while sticking to a soft diet of white foods with mild flavors like white fish, bananas, mashed potatoes, and yogurt for a few days after treatment. It’s also important to practice excellent oral hygiene and visit our office for regular exams and cleanings to prevent damaging infections and stain-causing accumulations. If you find that your whitening results have diminished after a while, you can come back to our office for touch-up treatments.
Understanding the Cost of Teeth Whitening
It’s important to understand the financial side of the teeth whitening process before you commit to it. Luckily, the team at Forever Young Dentistry of Sterling Heights will do everything we can to ensure that the associated costs and your payment and financing options are as clear as they can be. The best way to get a proper cost estimate for your teeth whitening treatment is to schedule a consultation at our office.
Factors That Affect the Cost of Teeth Whitening
While teeth whitening treatments typically come at a set price, some patients may need more than one to achieve their desired results. A few factors that can affect the cost of your treatment include:
- The severity of your stains and discoloration
- The causes of your stains, such as aging, medication, or long-term exposure to heavily pigmented foods and beverages
- Whether your stains are located on the surface of your enamel (extrinsic) or beneath your enamel (intrinsic)
- The need for preliminary procedures such as gum disease therapy or treatments for tooth decay
Types of Teeth Whitening: What Do They Cost?
Teeth whitening treatments can come in a number of forms at different price points. A few of these include:
- In-office teeth whitening procedures: These typically cost anywhere from $400 to $800, but they may be as expensive as $1,000 in severe cases.
- Professional-take home kits: These kits come with customized dental trays and professional-grade whitening gel, and they typically go for a few hundred dollars.
- Over-the-counter whitening kits: These products can usually be found at the store or pharmacy for $100 or less.
- Whitening strips or gels: These store-bought products are typically sold in two-week supplies that usually cost between twenty and forty dollars.
Cheap Teeth Whitening vs. Professional Teeth Whitening
You may wonder why professional teeth whitening treatments are so popular after reading the numbers listed above, but it’s important to remember that you can expect to get what you pay for. Many patients who use store-bought solutions like kits, strips, or gels find that these products offer lackluster results at best, and some find them to be completely ineffective. In some cases, people using these products have injured themselves due to shoddy manufacturing or user error. Professional whitening treatments, on the other hand, are customized to vastly reduce the risk of injury while delivering remarkable results in brief timeframes, and most users notice significant differences shortly after beginning treatment.
Options for Making Teeth Whitening Affordable
Since teeth whitening is considered a cosmetic procedure, it isn’t typically covered by traditional dental insurance plans. However, we offer several options for making these treatments more affordable, those being:
- Financing options: We partner with CareCredit and Proceed Finance to offer flexible financing plans that can break your bill into smaller monthly payments that can be easily managed. To make these deals even better, these plans typically involve little to no interest.
- In-house membership plan: We offer this option to give uninsured or underinsured patients a way to make treatment affordable and stress-free.
We’ll be more than happy to provide you with a cost estimate and help you navigate your payment and financing options at our office. If you’re ready to begin your journey to a whiter smile, don’t hesitate to contact us to schedule your consultation.