Teeth whitening is popular for lots of reasons. The most obvious? Having a much whiter smile makes you feel great. It helps you improve your appearance, enhance your self-esteem and confidence and makes a great impression on others. Tooth whitening is also an easy and more inexpensive procedure to undergo than many other forms of cosmetic surgery. So, considering cost, results and satisfaction, tooth whitening is one of the most popular cosmetic procedures in the world.
A quick glimpse at history shows that the desire to have white teeth has been around long before the arrival of seductive Hollywood smiles and billion-dollar bleaching campaigns.
People have actually been whitening their teeth for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians used a cream made from oxen hooves mixed with burned eggshell, pumice and water to whiten their teeth. Upper-class Romans added expensive imported urine to their teeth whitening mix (unaware that it was the ammonia molecules that were whitening their teeth). The Greeks had formulations, as did the Europeans who were putting compounds on their teeth in a conscious effort to whiten them during the Renaissance. Unfortunately, those compounds were essentially the equivalent of today's Clorox & ate the enamel away on the teeth. They had whiter teeth for a while, but then they started to see severe decay.
In contrast to previous whitening methods, today's treatments are much safer and produce great results - with far less damaging side effects.
