Can anyone give me any tips on where to find Crest Whitestrips (or similar home tooth whitening kits) in Bangkok? I searched the forum and found a thread from several years ago that pointed towards Boots, but I've checked out the Boots and Watsons in Central Rama 9 (and a Boots in K Village) with no luck.

I'm not at all keen on visiting a dentist for tooth whitening as I've heard it can be quite painful, and I had a traumatic experience involving root canal surgery without anaesthetic last year that has made me more than a little hesitant to set foot inside a dental surgery

Thanks

Sorry can not help in your search but really wonder about an RCT without anaesthetic. You mean still being conscious but actually having normal xylocaine injections? (I hope). I had such an experience several decades ago where the xylocaine could not work due to infection and indeed avoided dentists for many years. But have never had any such pain experience from dentists in Thailand.

It was the final stage of the root canal, in which the dentist planed down the remaining tooth bed to create a flat surface on which to attach a crown. In theory the area should have been completely dead, and I should only have been able to feel the pressure of the drill but no pain, so he didn't bother giving me a local before starting up the drill. It took five minutes of the most horrific shooting agony before he stopped, during which he ignored my howls of pain and just repeated 'is there pain?' time and again.

This was a Vietnamese dentist in HCMC, by the way. I'm sure it was an isolated incident, but I'll be a little gun shy for a while yet.

I do hope he got all the roots out.

I do hope he got all the roots out.

Me too. It's been over a year now and there have been no problems, so despite the extreme pain I'm pretty confident he did his job thoroughly enough.

If you can't find the strips, a much cheaper (but slower) alternative is to buy a bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide at any pharmacy, then swill a capful around your teeth for 30 seconds every day. It may take 2-3 months for you to see an obvious difference, but it definitely works. Hydrogen peroxide is also wonderful for dislodging bits of food stuck in your teeth that brushing and flossing miss.

Yeah, I grabbed a bottle last night after I had no luck finding the strips. Thanks for the tip

(though I'd still love to find the strips if anyone can help)

I have never seen the strips here.

But there is no pain whatsoever involved in getting whitening gel fro ma dentists. All they do is make a mold of your teeth (100% painless) from which they make plastic trays for you (which you can reuse for years) and then supply the gel which you apply yourself at home.

Any dentists can do this.

the gels come in various strengths, usually they start you with a lower strength to see how you tolerate it. When you apply it at home, can keep on as little as an hour at a time. And you can space out the applications if you find your teeth getting a little sensitive i.e. do not have to apply it every night,. The effect is cumulative.

Maybe you are thinking of reports of laser whitening, which is altogether different. AS I can't imagine where anyone would report any pain or discomfort from this.