How to whiten your teeth and prevent stains with 5 effective methods

For the most efficient and, arguably, the most effective teeth whitening, you need to go to a professional. But you will pay between an average of $500 to $1,500 for professional teeth whitening, the former for bleaching, the latter for laser whitening.

A professional teeth bleaching session will usually take two to three hours, and costs range as low as $400 to around $650 depending on the dentist. Laser teeth whitening — which actually still depends on bleaching agents to do the work, the laser merely speeds up and enhances the process — adds almost a thousand dollars. But it's faster and for many people, the results last longer.

The biggest benefit of professional teeth whitening is the speed at which it works. Most patients will leave the practice with visibly whiter teeth. But a professional teeth whitening is hardly permanent. Within a matter of months, the results will fade.

So after you shell out a hefty dose of cash for a same day bright smile, spend a bit more for products that can help you maintain that whiter smile at home.

An at-home teeth whitening kit that uses trays and an LED light can produce impressive results if used regularly. These kits come with a number of doses of a concentrated whitening gel that you dispense onto a tray. The tray has a bright LED light connected to it that will help activate the solution (often a carbamide peroxide gel) during the half-hour treatment session.

A good at-home teeth whitening kit like the AuraGlow will cost about $50. That's a lot less than a session at a dental professionals office, to be sure, but to get truly appreciable results, you need to do a whitening session daily for a nearly three weeks.

The AuraGlow kit comes with enough gel for 20 treatments, so that's 20 days in a row spending a half hour with a big plastic tray clamped between your teeth.

Sure, it seems counterintuitive to whiten your teeth with a black powder, but for many people, activated charcoal powder works wonders. When gently brushed onto teeth, activated charcoal powder will bind with much of the plaque coating the teeth, making it remove more easily when the powder is brushed away. As plaque is often yellowish in color, its removal will do much to brighten your smile.

However, charcoal powder won't actually remove stains on the enamel itself. Clearing away plaque is great for oral health and should be a part of your teeth whitening strategy, but it's not a substitute for other techniques, and it's certainly not a stand in for brushing with other toothpaste.

We recommend you try the Active Wow Teeth Whitening Charcoal Powder — tens of thousands of other people already stand by the stuff.

You already brush your teeth at least twice a day, right? And you floss and use a tongue scraper and an antiseptic mouthwash and fluoride treatments, correct? Actually, kidding aside, tongue scrapers are great, you should try one! Then by all means, make sure you're using a toothpaste with good whitening properties.

Personally, I use Arm & Hammer AdvanceWhite, which has baking soda, peroxide, and fluoride, but I get that some people don't like the taste of the stuff. So also consider Colgate Optic White High Impact or, if you're worried about sensitivity, try Sensodyne Pronamel Gentle Whitening.

The best way to enjoy a lasting white smile is to prevent teeth stains from occurring in the first place as best you can. This includes the obvious tip to not smoke, which is bad for your teeth, lungs, heart, skin, and everything else located between your scalp and the bottom of your feet.

And while avoiding red wine, coffee, blueberries, and other dark beverages and foods will certainly help prevent stains, doing so will also reduce life pleasure more than having a brighter smile will increase it.

Instead of avoiding everything that could stain your teeth, change a few of your habits. Consider using a straw as much as possible, even with coffee or wine. Maybe not when you're out at a nice restaurant, but at home, anyway. Investing in a few stainless steel straws ensures you always have one ready and that the taste of your drink won't be affected. I like EcoVessel straws because they have a soft silicone tip.

If you're serious about preventing stains, you need to brush your teeth after eating or drinking anything likely to cause them. But in fact you should not brush immediately after consuming highly acidic foodstuffs, as you can corrode your teeth by grinding the acid in. Instead, rinse thoroughly with water and then brush. And whether or not you can brush your teeth after every time you eat, always make pure water the last thing you consume after a meal, snack, or drink.