I drink a lot of coffee because I’m always tired. My coffee intake has increased since I became a mom. When you drink a lot of coffee, you’re staining your teeth. Yeah, it sucks, but mommy needs her caffeine. Fortunately, I’ve found a great home whitening system!
{ Disclosure: I received a free kit from Smile Brilliant in exchange for an honest review }
So, I’ve always been self-conscious about my teeth. I had a huge overbite as a kid. I’m talking Simpson’s level overbite. I could fit my finger into my mouth while biting down. Quite embarrassing. I had headgear for a couple of years, and luckily, that worked. Otherwise, they were talking about surgically moving my jaw forward.
Now that I’m an adult and my teeth are (mostly) straight, my main concern is how white my teeth are. I’ve been using expensive whitening toothpaste, but it doesn’t work as well as I had hoped.
Then I found Smile Brilliant! Well, they found me. They offered me a free kit to try out for an honest review. Here’s how it works.
Take Impressions of Your Teeth
Ok, this was not the most pleasant thing ever. I was having traumatic flashbacks of my childhood braces and the 4 years of orthodontics I went through. If you’ve had impressions taken for a retainer, this is the same process but at home. I’m not going to lie, I gagged a bit with the top impression. The bottom one was much easier.
You mix two playdoh like substances together to make the mold and then press it into your teeth. The hard part is keeping it in your mouth for two and a half minutes. And when they say keep paper towels handy, they don’t mention they’re for drool because that’s what I used them for. I was a mess but it was hilarious! They give you an extra set of stuff to make the mold just in case you mess up, too.
Once you’ve let your impressions dry, you mail them in. They’ll make a mold of your teeth and send it back to you. The mold is the best part of this system because it fits PERFECTLY in your mouth. I’ve tried strips before and they don’t fit your teeth well so you don’t get all over coverage. The molds solve this problem.
The Whitening Process
Helpful tip: Read all of the directions before you start.
I’m bad about not reading directions first. So I brushed my teeth with toothpaste before I used it the first time. You’re only supposed to brush with water before you whiten. This is explained in the directions (which I didn’t read until after I did it) because the whitening gel doesn’t work as well when you use toothpaste first.
The whole process is actually pretty easy. You just put some whitening gel into your mold trays with the syringes and put them in for 45 minutes to 3 hours at a time. You only need to do one whitening session per day and you don’t have to do it every day. It’s best to do it before you go to bed so you have all night before you throw more coffee at your teeth.
After you take your trays out, you brush your teeth WITH TOOTHPASTE THIS TIME. (Thanks, directions!) And if you have sensitive teeth, you can get the desensitizing gel to use after you whiten. You follow the same process to apply it, but you only have to keep it in for about 20 minutes. I tried it a couple of times but after my third whitening, I realized I don’t really need it. My teeth aren’t that sensitive. If you know you don’t have sensitive teeth, you can get the regular kit. If you aren’t sure how sensitive your teeth are, you might want to get the sensitive kit just to be safe. It won’t hurt you to use the desensitizing gel.
Each syringe has enough gel for 3 or 4 uses so you can get 9 whitening sessions out of the smallest kit they offer. NINE! How awesome is that? And it compares to a $600 dentist visit!
Before and After
Ok, I’m really self-conscious about this guys, but here’s my before and after. (Please excuse my chapped lips in the after picture. It’s winter!) I whitened about 7 times. I still have some more applications to do but I couldn’t wait to tell you guys about it and let you in on the giveaway.
Use my exclusive coupon code tootsmom for 5% off your Smile Brilliant order!
Overall, I Really Like It
I was really impressed with the quality of this system and the results. I’ve tried several whitening systems that you can buy in the store like strips and $20 toothpaste. This is my favorite way to whiten. I can pop these in and watch a couple episodes of whatever show I’m currently watching (Superstore, y’all. Fantastic show!) or work on my blog or schedule my pins for Pinterest.
Once you have your mold made, you can reorder just the whitening gel if you need more. When I use up what I have I’ll probably order some more gel in about 6 months or so to whiten again.
Win a Smile Brilliant Whitening Kit!
You can win the same kit that I received by entering here. It comes with everything you need to make a mold of your teeth, three whitening syringes, and three desensitizing syringes! (Enough for nine whitening sessions!)
Exclusive Coupon Code!
If you use the code tootsmom you get 5% off your order of Smile Brilliant! So go ahead and get your own kit here.
Do you need to whiten your teeth?
Let me know in the comments below!
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