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What Teeth Whitener Is Most Effective

Essay by   •  January 2, 2012  •  Essay  •  371 Words (2 Pages)  •  1,788 Views

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The effectiveness of teeth whiteners varies with each different product. People use teeth whiteners to brighten their smile. Teeth whiteners use the power of peroxides, calprox, hydrated silica, polyvinylpyrrolidone, potassium nitrate, sodium bicarbonate, fluorides, sodium tripolyphosphate, and strontium chloride to whiten teeth. Teeth whitening started in toothpaste but Barbers were the first to use the process of teeth whitening on people. The barbers would file down a patient's teeth with a type of metal file, then dab them with highly-corrosive nitric acid. This whitened the teeth greatly but it also destroyed the stained enamel on the teeth and caused decaying down the road. People began noticing spots on their teeth and began testing it they later found out that is was the reaction between the tooth enamel. Later on in the 1840s, Italian and French dentists recommended people to suck on honey-sweetened, fluoride lozenges. In 1915, American scientists experimented adding fluoride to water. This helped the teeth stay healthy. Fluorides spread from water to mouthwashes and toothpastes, cutting

down on cavities. But down the road they found that too much fluoride became a bad thing and cause stains themselves.

Teeth is made up of an inner dentin layer and a hard outer layer called enamel this protects the teeth. Another layer gradually forms on top of the enamel layer when u eat,drink,or smoke,etc. The material from those activities builds up to form a pellicle film over the enamel layer. A dentist can clean away this film, through scraping and chemical treatments. Even brushing your teeth can knock out some of it brushing with the abrasive toothpaste cleans the tooth in the same sort of way scrubbing with an abrasive pad cleans a dish. Whitening toothpastes are designed to work even harder on this layer to destroy this layer. This is where true tooth whiteners come in. Basically, the whiteners use bleaching chemicals to get down into the tooth enamel and set off a oxidation reaction that breaks apart the staining compounds. Most tooth whiteners use one of two chemical agents: carbamide peroxide or hydrogen peroxide. When used in the mouth, carbamide peroxide breaks down into hydrogen peroxide and urea, with hydrogen peroxide being the active whitening ingredient.

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