The days to Christmas are ticking away quickly and maybe some of your end of year resolutions haven’t gone exactly to plan. Why not treat yourself to a last minute Christmas smile? But with such little time left, what’s available? Realignment techniques will take a little longer than the weeks left for Christmas but teeth whitening can be effective as quickly as an hour after you’ve had them done!

Whitening

The cheapest form of whitening is home whitening kits which are acquired either through your dentist, who will take a moulding of your teeth and have a kit sent to you around a week later, or by purchasing kits from shops or the internet. The kit will have either a tray or strip that is fitted to your teeth for a certain number of hours for around 2 weeks. Some kits (those bought from suspect sites on the internet for the most part) have been known to give rather damaging results to the rest of the mouth due to the whitening formula being too concentrated so always try to stick to dentist recommended and issued kits.

The quickest method for tooth whitening is in-surgery laser whitening and will involve your dentist placing whitening gel on to your teeth and exposing them to either a laser or light. The gel then whitens your teeth. This method can show improvements almost instantly after the procedure as well as dramatic change in the colour of your teeth. It is, however, significantly more expensive than in-home whitening techniques but if you’re after noticeable changes before Christmas then times almost up!

Realignment

While it might be too late to do anything about realigning now before Crimbo you could always start planning for next year. In the past ugly, metal braces were the only real option for realigning your teeth. Now you can make the most of Invisalign invisible braces which is composed of aligners that are changed every two weeks to fix tooth alignment. Because they are temporary they can also be removed for social occasions and don’t require readjustment from the dentist. There are a variety of different types of Invisalign braces but generally a quick course will have around 20 different braces meaning it should last just under a year. This obviously depends on how much of a change you’re hoping to get and can be more or less than this amount. Invisalign braces are much faster acting than regular braces and are usually only slightly more expensive, so if you don’t plan on getting them yourself for next Christmas they could still prove to be a good last minute present for someone else!

Looking for cosmetic dentistry? Talk to Harley Street Dental Studio

The Harley Street Dental Studio has a vast range of services to enhance your smile. For more information on any aspect of cosmetic dentistry contact us on 020 7636 5981.