Making a Wish Come True Means Getting Past the Hassle
This post was automatically translated by AI from the Japanese original. Some photos show Japanese text.
I’m starting whitening today!
Last time, I told my dentist I wanted whitening, and yesterday I picked up my mouthpiece tray.
Thinking It’s Too Early for Someone Like Me Keeps the First Step Away
My teeth are naturally the standard color for Japanese people, and apparently whitening can make them one to two shades whiter.
I chose home whitening. Including the consultation, the mouthpiece and the gel, it came to 34,200 yen.
It took three visits: consultation and explanation at a checkup, impressions for the mouthpiece, and pickup.
It seems that if I’d asked in advance, they could have combined these with a checkup.
There’s also office whitening, done at the dentist’s. It works right away, but the price depends on the number of teeth, and it was more expensive than home whitening 🤔
For home whitening, you put the gel in the mouthpiece at home and wear it for two to three hours.
If you keep it up every day, you notice a change after about two weeks. The effect is said to last about six months to a year.
After that, if you want to go whiter, you can keep going longer, or you can take a break and do it again when it starts to bother you.
The daily routine is a bit of a hassle, but it whitens all your teeth and lasts a long time, so I thought it was worth it.
This is what I actually use. You put the gel in the mouthpiece and fit it over your teeth.
I was given a lot of precautions when I actually started.
It’s only my first time, so I don’t really know how much gel to use yet.
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There’s a risk of white spots and tooth sensitivity (especially in the beginning).
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For about two hours after whitening, I can’t eat anything acidic.
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In daily life, I should avoid especially strongly colored food and drinks.
(That said, it’s hard to avoid them completely, so if I want coffee, for example, I try to use a straw so it doesn’t touch my teeth.)
I tend to keep having tea, coffee and chocolate while I work 🥺
I was given four weeks’ worth of gel, and I plan to keep going until it’s used up, but the food and drink restrictions are tough 💦
To make a wish come true, you need to act.
When I think, “I want whiter teeth!”, I have to:
- Look up how it works
- Talk to my dentist
- Go to the clinic several times
- Pay the money
- Learn how to do home whitening
- Wear the mouthpiece at home for two hours every day
- Choose what I eat and drink
- Keep it up for four weeks
At the very least, it takes this many actions.
When it means doing something I’ve never done, something different from usual, part of me thinks, “Maybe it’s fine the way things are.”
It’s fine either way, but if I skip it just because it’s a hassle, I stay where I am and the range of my experience stays small.
Trying it and finding out I didn’t need it is an experience too.
I don’t want to make decisions just because something is a hassle.
