I had my teeth whitened the
expensive way in 1999. My dentist took impressions, drilled a lot to
reshape all my front teeth, and then veneered the sixteen most visible
teeth. We spent a lot of time choosing colors, so that my teeth would
not look like they glowed in the dark, but looked natural.

Since then we have had an explosion of reseach about blueberries,
red wine, and dark chocolate being good for you, in addition to, of
course, coffee and tea.

So of course my teeth aren't completely white anymore. Not to
mention the fact that because my front teeth are veneers, they won't
respond to any of the newer whitening treatments.

I think I paid about $7000 for this procedure almost ten years ago.
While it is more permanent than some of the newer methods like
whitening strips and tray whitening, I've seen the results of those
treatments on my friends, and I think they work well. If you are
careful, and don't do it too often, you can get a good result at home,
and not pay what I did.

I think you just have to be careful that you don't weaken your teeth with some of these products.

My take: try to do it yourself before you spend the money on a set of veneers.