Laser whitening is a variation of tooth bleaching no matter how you look at it.

Laser alone does not whiten your teeth. It would be nice if it did but sorry, there is no way to go around whitening gels.

Your dentist will still prepare your teeth and gums and will still paint your teeth with powerful tooth whitening chemicals. As with regular tooth whitening these chemicals contain hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide.

The laser or some kind of other light is then used to activate the whitening gel. Ordinary whitening gels do not react to light. Laser tooth whitening requires special whitening gels designed specifically for laser enhanced bleaching.

When activated by light these tooth whitening gels release oxygen bubbles that do the bleaching. If you want to know more about how tooth whitening works read the tooth bleaching section .

The benefits of laser tooth whitening

Now you know. It is not the light that whitens your teeth. So what are the benefits?

1. Light activated whitening gels release more oxygen bubbles faster. More bubbles mean more whitening power and shorter application times. So, in theory laser tooth whitening is faster and more powerful.

2. Because the light helps the release of the oxygen bubbles your dentist can use lower concentration whitening gels and still achieve the same results. (This is why laser assisted whitening will not necessary whiten your teeth any better than ordinary bleaching.)

3. Perhaps the biggest benefit of laser tooth whitening is the ability to use lower concentration chemicals. It makes the treatment safer.

Will your teeth be whiter after laser assisted tooth whitening?

It may appear to be so. You will find many sites giving you proof of wonderful results. There are even statistics supporting this view.

On the other hand there are many reports saying there is no proven benefit of laser tooth whitening. In other words your teeth will not be any whiter with light assisted bleaching.

This is one of those things we just have to wait and see which position comes out first. One thing is certain. At the very minimum laser teeth whitening works just as well as regular in-office bleaching.

Personally, if I had to choose between laser whitening as opposed to regular in-office bleaching I would probably opt for laser tooth whitening. (Unless it is much more expensive.) But I still believe at-home whitening works just as well.

How about light assisted at-home tooth whitening?

Yes, there are products like that. And there will be more of these products in the future.

However, consider this. Laser tooth whitening requires you to paint the bleaching gel onto your teeth and illuminate it with the light. Then you will have to sit still in front of a lamp with your mouth open. Does it sound comfortable?

Commercially available whitening gels are not light activated, so there is no benefit of the light.

Also, commercially sold whitening gels are much less powerful (6% hydrogen peroxide as opposed to 35% hydrogen peroxide). At-home tooth whitening kits work because you will leave the bleaching gel on your teeth much longer (2 to 4 hours a day). Do you see where I am going with this? At-home laser tooth whitening would take too much time to be convenient.

“That’s all I have to say about that.” (Forest Gump)

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