Having yellow teeth can be embarrassing and is not aesthetically pleasing at all. And for those in public relations jobs, yellowing teeth may even hinder their job performance. Today, there is no reason why anyone has to suffer this condition for long as there are many dentist offices specializing in smile enhancement dental work that perform teeth whitening.

There’s also been a boom in over the counter products that promise to whiten your teeth at a fraction of the cost that a dentist will charge. There are teeth whitening strips, teeth whitening trays, and even toothpastes which promise to remove the stains from your teeth.

But how well do these at-home teeth whitening tooth enhancing products really work?

The key ingredient in all of these teeth whitening products is hydrogen peroxide. Yes, the same hydrogen peroxide you can buy at the pharmacy. Hydrogen peroxide is a powerful stain removal. It’s used in many industrial products such as carpet and rug cleaners. On your teeth, it helps to lift away stains. But because hydrogen peroxide is so powerful, you have to be careful how much you use it. Using it too frequently or in too great of a concentration can cause harm to the enamel in your teeth. In fact, this is one of the primary reasons that many people opt to have their teeth whitening performed by a dentist rather than doing it themselves.

However, if you are doing it yourself, the whitening trays have generally performed the best job of teeth whitening. The main reason is that they enable the peroxide to stay in contact with your teeth longer thus giving it more time to work its magic. It’s not unusual for the top brand teeth whitening strips to whiten teeth up to 4 or more shades.