Navigating The 'Aisle Of Confusion' To Whiten Your Teeth

Walk down the aisle of your local pharmacy or grocery store and you'll be bombarded by a dizzying array of bleaching products, from gels and strips to paint-on bleach.

Cosmetic tooth bleaching is a $3.2 billion global industry, according to market analysts, and it's getting bigger fast. It's easy to see why. Strikingly white, bright smiles dominate TV and social media, and people tend to prefer the bright teeth of youth rather than those that have been yellowed by trauma or age.

But if you decide that you, too, want a brighter smile, it's hard to know where to start.

"I'm a dentist, but I'm also a consumer and I can certainly get confused by all the products," says Ruchi Sahota who practices in Fremont, Calif. A colleague of hers describes the tooth product aisle in stores as the "dental aisle of confusion," because there are so many options. "You can easily get bewildered standing there trying to figure out which option is the best," she says.

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