A friend of mine had very yellow teeth. She's been smoking and drinking lots of coffee and red wine for a couple of decades. She recently decided to do something about it. She went to the dentist and asked about teeth whiteners.

Her dentist didn't recommend the Zoom tooth whitening method. She said the reason it's so popular is because the laser/light causes extreme dehydration to the teeth and this is what makes people's teeth look so much more brilliantly white just one hour later. But the effect is very temporary. One still needs to go through with a tooth tray whitening for a few days in order to retain the effect.

She said the one good thing about the Zoom teeth whitening procedure is that it really does motivate people to follow-up with the longer procedure because they can see right away what their teeth would look like when whiter.

So my friend opted for the take-home bleaching kit that involves having the dentist make a mould of her teeth and then wearing the mould every night for seven to ten nights.

It's interesting that her dentist also pointed out that she may want to stop at day seven instead of day ten. Teeth that are too white can look very unnatural and quite ridiculous.

The unrelated photo of three women with beautiful teeth above is by i a n.