Achieving a whiter smile is possible for anyone today. The list of teeth whitening options available to consumers continues to grow and improve with each passing year. But with so many choices, choosing the option that best suits your budget and lifestyle can be a daunting task. And what about over-the-counter whitening products? What function do they serve and do they actually whiten teeth?

This article will look at one of the most common over-the-counter products, whitening toothpastes, and help you better understand what part, if any, it should play in your goal to obtain and maintain a whiter smile.

Most people brush their teeth twice each day. It is a habit yielding immediate positive results and provides long lasting benefits in overall oral hygiene. It is not to be taken lightly. Today's modern toothpastes, meeting the American Dental Association's Seal of Approval, contain ingredients specially formulated to help keep our teeth and gums healthy and strong. Some of the basic ingredients found in today's modern toothpaste are:

* Abrasives: aid in the removal of tartar and plaque.
* Active ingredients: These are the components of the toothpaste that have a direct effect on the teeth and gums. Examples of what these ingredients are designed to accomplish are:
* Decay prevention
* Antibacterial Agents
* Tartar Control Agents
* Desensitizing Agents
* Detergents

With the increasing popularity in the teeth-whitening marketplace, toothpaste manufacturers have taken the opportunity to advertise the existing benefits, already inherent in toothpaste, toward this market. As shown above all ADA approved toothpastes help remove surface stains through the action of mild abrasives. "Whitening" toothpastes in the ADA Seal of Acceptance program have special chemical or polishing agents that provide additional stain removal effectiveness. In general teeth whitening toothpaste can be expected to lighten your teeth by one shade.

Whitening toothpaste does not change the intrinsic color of the tooth structure. It is important to understand the difference between, extrinsic and intrinsic tooth staining.

Extrinsic refers to the surface staining caused by coffee, tea, tobacco, red wine, berries and other stain-causing foods as well as plaque.

Intrinsic means that the stain comes from within the tooth. This happens due to the natural yellowing that occurs to our teeth with age, medicinal stains like tetracycline, other antibiotics and too much fluoride.

To change the intrinsic color of teeth requires a bleaching agent to be applied over a specified period of time and is most effectively performed during a chair-side visit at your Dentist's office. One power-bleaching visit at the Dentist's office can lighten teeth by up to seven shades in one hour, removing yellowing and the other intrinsic stains mentioned above. This type of dramatic result does come with a price however.

While doing research for this article most Dentist literature I ran across was passionate in its emphasis that proper brushing with any ADA approved toothpaste will remove most of the extrinsic surface staining that accumulates on our teeth.

But the fact that the American Dental Association has created a new category for "Whitening Toothpastes" with ingredients providing additional stain removing effectiveness is proof these new toothpastes are here to stay and can play an important role in preserving the expensive teeth whitening results achieved at the Dentist's office.