As you are probably aware, it is campaign season again.

Unless you crawl in a hole (and we might not blame you), you will be seeing and hearing political campaign ads for the next several months.

Don’t worry, we aren’t going to get political today, but we did see an interesting story the other day. A man running for Congress in Arizona, David Giles, recently reported spending campaign funds on teeth whitening and other personal items. (In case you were wondering, the Federal Election Commission frowns on candidates using contributions on personal stuff.)

Regardless of whose money Mr. Giles was spending, our team at Bayou Dental Group can understand why he would want his teeth to look nicer on the campaign trail … and why you may want to visit our dentist office in Monroe, LA, for professional teeth whitening.

Your Teeth Affect How You Are Perceived

The American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry conducted a survey about teeth whitening recently.

They found the following:

• 99.7 percent of respondents said that a new smile is important in society
• 96 percent said that a smile helps someone appear more attractive
• 74 percent said an unattractive smile can hurt someone’s chances of getting a job

When asked to name the first three things people notice about a person’s smile, the top three answers were straightness of the other person’s teeth, how white the person’s teeth are, and how clean the person’s teeth are.

Teeth whitening can help with two of those three things.

And what was the top answer to “What makes a smile unattractive?”

Discolored, stained, or yellow teeth was the answer.

Coincidentally, whiter teeth was the answer that most people gave when asked what they would like to change about their teeth.

A Trustworthy Smile

Other surveys have shown that nice smiles make people appear more attractive, more confident, and friendlier.

But the kicker (at least for our politician friends) may be that nice smiles make us appear more trustworthy.

This probably isn’t something that we consciously think about in the moment that a salesperson approaches us, but it really can influence how likely we are to believe what that person has to say.

At the same time, the color of your teeth can affect how confident you feel when approaching someone else.

Think for a moment about meeting someone such as a potential employer or romantic partner for the first time. What would they think if you still had a piece of lettuce from lunch stuck in your teeth?

If you ducked into a bathroom to check yourself in the mirror before this meeting, surely you would remove the lettuce first.

Now imagine that same scenario only you have dark, stained teeth. This isn’t something you can wipe off with your tongue or a paper towel. This requires the stain-removing power of professional teeth whitening.

Reasons Your Teeth Become Discolored

In a real sense, tooth discoloration is inevitable. As long as you plan on eating and drinking to survive, many of those things will add to the stains that gradually develop on your teeth.

Think about what you have consumed in the past 24 hours — coffee, tea, soft drinks, fruit, berries, tomato sauces, desserts. Nearly everything you put in your mouth to eat or drink can leave a trace amount behind.

After years and decades of sips, snacks, and meals, your teeth will look darker or yellow. Toothpaste can help remove the surface stains, but it’s not going to remove the deeper stains that have become set with time.

To remove those stains, you will need a whitening treatment with a product like Zoom!, which is available at Bayou Dental Group.

Zoom! contains a higher concentration of whitening ingredients than anything you can find at a grocery or retail store. By coming to our office for a whitening treatment, we can remove decades of stains from your teeth in less than an hour.

Usually we will start with a professional teeth cleaning to ensure we get your teeth as white as we can. You may be surprised how much of a difference a single professional whitening treatment can make, especially if you have tried using commercial products.

Vote For Yourself

You don’t need to run for office to be a good candidate for professional teeth whitening. If you are interested in this service, contact our dentist office in Monroe, LA. You can make an appointment online or by calling [phone].