Re: Very Unhappy with dental whitening

I've never been to a dentist who said they could whiten my teeth, they've all said that they can get them lighter, but not white and they all admit that they can't get the stains off my teeth.  I was a 20+ year cigarette smoker (quit more than 40 years ago) and I've been a black coffee drinker most of my adult life.  Have been told these are the reasons that my teeth won't get white because the stains are deep.  (Teeth do have naturally occurring holes or openings in them and long term coffee use gets into them.)

That said, Costco recently started carrying Colgate Optic White toothpaste so I picked up a pack (you can't buy just one at Costco).  Have been using it for a couple of months now and it very definitely is making my teeth whiter.  I can tell that there are stains that are 'buried' on my teeth and they are improving considerably.  So I've been pleasantly surprised by the results.  From what I've read it takes months for the full effect to work and I'm expecting that the stains will eventually be gone because they have become much smaller since starting this.

You can see from the reviews here on Amazon that some have success with it while others do not:

http://www.amazon.com/Colgate-Optic-White-Toothpaste-Ounce/dp/B005GO5C44/ref=...

One other thing that I have tried is the Listerine tooth whitening mouth wash.  It's a pain in the butt to use so I don't use it that often, but when I do it helps too.  The Listerine has to be washed around in your mouth for a full 60 seconds and that's a long time.  Then you have to get it all out before brushing your teeth.  It is not 'nice' tasting and I don't trust mixing it with the Optic White but as I said, when I use it, I do get results.