With the Christmas holidays comes tons of photo-ops, and I decided to get my chompers looking extra sparkly for the camera. My teeth are not very yellow or stained, but they aren't Hollywood-white either.
I looked at a couple of at-home options and decided to take the Colgate Optic White challenge - they claim that using the toothpaste twice a day for a week will leave your teeth one shade lighter.
I bought a double pack of the toothpaste from Dischem for R29.99. The tube is 75ml and the toothpaste itself is white with little blue granules in it. I used my electric toothbrush and brushed for 2 minutes as I usually do. The toothpaste didn't feel any "stronger" than the toothpaste I am currently using, and my mouth felt as clean as it normally feels after brushing with regular toothpaste. I was disappointed that the pack doesn't come with a Tooth Colour Guide so that you can compare the difference in shades from using the product. Some of the other tooth whitening products come with one and I like to see that there is an actual difference and that it's not just in my head that my teeth are whiter!
Here is how my teeth looked before I started using Colgate Optic White. As you can see, they aren't terribly stained, but the bottom teeth do have some yellow discolouration. Probably from a lack of daily flossing in the past *blush* Also my mouth looks really weird when I try show my teeth.
Now I am not hoping for miracles - as much as I would love to have dazzling white teeth that blind people when I smile, I am pretty certain that I am not going to get results like that. Professional whitening costs over R1000, and this is just a R15 tube of toothpaste, but I am hoping to see a noticeable difference in my teeth.
I will brush my teeth twice a day for 2 minutes, and resist the urge to do brushing in between, so that the results are fair. I normally don't want to brush my teeth more than twice a day, but I'm so excited to see the results that now I want to brush all the time to make it work faster! Just to clue you up on my tooth stainage factor, I don't smoke, but I do drink about 2-4 cups of tea and coffee a day. I now floss daily since I got my Aquaflosser and I use an electric toothbrush with a 2 minute timer.
Have you tried using Colgate Optic White before? Are there any tooth whitening products that you swear by? I'd love to know!