Recently, the rage in oral hygiene seems to be teeth bleaching kits. In reality, the issue is not a hygienic one at all: healthy human teeth come in a natural range of shades of ivory and off-white. Foods and beverages such as tea, and habits like smoking will stain the teeth, but a good dental cleaning done by a professional dental hygienist will remove these stains and restore your teeth to their natural color. If you really want them whiter, a range of professional treatments and over the counter products are available for you to choose from.

Bleaching teeth is usually accomplished with peroxide - the peroxide is applied to the teeth topically and left on for a period of time. The method of application varies between teeth bleaching kits, and you may have to repeat the procedure several days in a row to complete the process. Though some of the higher end kits are quite expensive, the general rule is, as with so many other things, you get what you pay for.

Teeth bleaching kits that require you to paint the whitening agent onto the surface of your teeth and let it dry seem, at first glance, to be the easiest to use; however, you may have difficulty getting an even result because if some of the agent is rubbed or licked off before the rest, bleaching will end in that area. Once the teeth are unevenly colored, it can be difficult to attain an even color again. A further disadvantage of this method is that these formulas for bleaching teeth often contain alcohol and glycerin, which have a drying effect on the oral tissues and tooth enamel - damage that can lead to other problems (such as bad breath and sensitive teeth) later.

Some teeth bleaching kits contain strips that are applied to the teeth like tape. The whitening agent is on the strip and acts on the teeth as long as it is left in place. The difficulty with this kit design is that it is quite difficult to make sure the tape contacts all the contoured surfaces of the teeth: bleaching teeth this way can result in white outer surfaces, but stained grooves in the surface and stained areas between the teeth where they curve inwards. To get even whitening, you have to make sure the entire surface area of the tooth is exposed to the peroxide.

Perhaps the least comfortable, but most effective home teeth bleaching kits include little trays, like the ones many dentists use to apply fluoride to teeth. The whitening agent is put into the tray and then the tray is applied over the teeth so that the entire surface of each tooth is effectively exposed. Formulas that contain peroxide at a concentration greater than 20 percent provide the best results for bleaching teeth, and again, watch out for kits that contain alcohol and glycerin.