Quick Overview on Tooth Whitening Trays

Tooth whitening trays are used in most professional level at-home tooth whitening kits. But not all trays were created equal. This quick overview is to help you with the big picture.

In your quest to find the best teeth whitening products you will be reading about different kinds of tooth whitening trays all over the place. You will find a list of the different kinds of trays below.

Whitening trays serve a single purpose. They hold the tooth bleaching gel against your teeth. You load the tray with gel, place it on your teeth and wait … and wait. The bleaching gel does the whitening. Some treatments require you to hold the tray in place for hours (preferably with the bleaching gel still inside).

Why do you need trays to hold the gel?

• Without trays the gel would be washed away in minutes. You want to whiten you teeth not your digestive system. Trays prevent the gel from washing away.
• Trays press the gel against the entire surface of your teeth. No contact with tooth bleaching gel, no whitening.
• Trays make the whitening process more comfortable.

About different kinds of tooth whitening trays:

• Custom fitted whitening trays: Custom fitted trays are the best and most expensive. Custom trays are made to match your teeth. If you want custom trays first you have to take impressions of your teeth and mail the impressions back for lab processing. The lab then will send you the trays back in a few days.
  There are many benefits of custom tooth whitening trays. Saving you money is one of them.

• Moldable whitening trays: Moldable trays are also fitted to your teeth but you will not have to take impressions and you will not have to mail them back to anyone. Many kits come with moldable trays. These are less expensive, and you can use them right away.

  To find out more about the difference between custom fitted and moldable trays read the section about how custom tooth whitening trays can save you money.

• Stock trays: These are one size-fits-all type of trays. These don’t fit as well as custom or moldable trays, may fall off and have other problems. Hardly any whitening kits come with stock trays anymore.

• Whitening strips: Strips are thin paper like stripes of plastic. They are cheap and very simple to use and disposable. There are many tooth whitening kits sold with strips. You can buy these in supermarkets. Almost everywhere. One side is covered with bleaching gel. You just stick the strip onto your teeth and ready to go. When finished you throw the used strips away. Easy, simple, no mess. The effectiveness of strip based kits varies greatly.

• Other systems do not use tooth whitening trays. For example paint-on whitening kits have no trays.

Find more tooth bleaching tray related information in the whitening comfort section - Remember, for whiter teeth you have to use your tooth whitening kit. Tooth whitening trays must be comfortable otherwise you will stop using them.