Maintaining Your White Smile

Here are some cool tips to keep your smile bright and beautiful after professionally whitening your teeth.

To prolong the life of your new smile try the following:

• Avoid dark-colored beverages for at least an hour or two after your whitening treatment.
• Some beverages that tend to stain your teeth are hot tea, more so than cold tea, red wine, coffee  and dark berry juices such as grape and cranberry juice.
• When possible, sip dark-colored beverages with a straw.
• Practice good oral hygiene – brush and floss after meals and before bedtime.
• Remember to get a professional cleaning twice a year.
• In fact, if you really want to know the best time to do whitening, its right after a professional cleaning. The reason is the tooth picks up a hard "SHELL" of minerals and microscopic food particles that sort of plug up the pores of the tooth. During the professional cleaning this shell is polished off and the pores are readily available to absorb a whitener for the best results.
• Before going out, use your take home whitening kit.
• This will brighten your smile brighter than it will stay normally and last about 2 hours at a "SUPER" bright level. This is the gem of all.
• For those of you who have already done whiteners you know that when you first take the trays off after having worn them for an hour or two the teeth are at their very brightest.
• So, if you are getting ready to go out and you are fussing with your hair and makeup or going through a couple of changes of clothes to see what's perfect, you should be wearing your whitener trays.
• In fact, you can wear them all the way over to your party or where ever you're going and then pop them off just before you make your entrance and see how many rave reviews you get on your smile. It doesn't get any better than this. Now of course the lucky folks who already have the white veneers don't have to do this.