Tray-based at-home teeth whitening using carbamide peroxide as the whitener became popular in the dental community after a clinical study detailing this technique was published in 1989. The article described how a dentist could:
- Create a plastic bleaching tray that had been fabricated so it fit comfortably over a person's teeth.
- Dispense a peroxide-based teeth whitener to the patient (10% carbamide peroxide).
The patient would then, at home, place the whitener into the bleaching tray and then wear the tray for multiple hours per day, for some weeks, as the effects of the whitening process took place.
In the wake of the popularity of this dentist supervised and dentist dispensed version of tray-based at-home teeth whitening many over-the-counter products have since become available.
While the topic of our pages is over-the-counter teeth whitening products, in regards to tray-based whitening we feel we must describe this technique in the fashion as performed by dentists. After all it is the dentist dispensed and supervised version of this bleaching method that over-the-counter products try to emulate.
When a dentist is involved with their patient's tray-based teeth whitening efforts the procedure usually includes the following steps:
While over-the-counter products try to emulate dentist dispensed and supervised teeth whitening systems there can be salient differences. We've listed some of these differences below: