Have you ever noticed people who leave work early on a Friday with stained teeth and come back on Monday with glaring, radiantly white teeth? You know exactly what they did on Friday, right? Then you think to yourself, "Hmmm, I would like to whiten my teeth, but how can I do it so that nobody knows I did it?" If you see the right cosmetic dentist and request subtle changes in tooth color over time, here is how.

Stage One: Determining How Many Shades Whiter You Want to Go

At your initial consultation with the cosmetic dentist, you will determine how many shades whiter you want to make your teeth. The dentist will hand you a mirror, and a strip of fake teeth of varying shades of white. You hold the strip of fake teeth up to your own, find your current shade, and then move to the shade you want your teeth to be. The dentist then chooses the best approach (e.g., lasers, whitening trays, whitening polish, etc.) to whiten in several steps rather than all at once.

Stage Two: Scheduling Your Visits

Once you know how many visits it will take to lighten your teeth slowly, you can schedule your visits with the cosmetic dentistry's office staff. Usually, each reduction in tooth color requires one to two weeks in between visits so that no one you know can tell that there is anything going on. Two weeks is standard, since you will probably see the majority of the people you know within two weeks time.

Stages Three Through Treatment Completion: Slowly Whitening Your Teeth

With each visit, the dentist will remove a layer of tooth discoloration. To whiten more slowly and in a less dramatic fashion, the dentist uses the lowest setting for a laser treatment, or the least amount of whitening agent in the least concentrated amount possible. Your teeth will look a little cleaner, but nothing quite so dramatic as that of your co-worker's transformation.

At the end of your treatment completion, your teeth will be the shade you chose at your initial consultation. No one you know will be able to tell that you had your teeth cosmetically whitened because they did not see such dramatic results so quickly. You may need touch-ups from time to time, but nothing that will ever reveal that you "had work done" on your teeth, which is exactly what you want. For more information, contact a company like Kemper Pond Dental.