Want to know a fun fact? I recently celebrated my one year anniversary of getting my braces off 😆. Yes it has been a year and yes I am still a psycho about my teeth (or at least I try to be). I brush, I floss, I whiten… and now I have a new product I love. Did you know, that there are probiotics for your teeth?! I was not aware of this, until my friends at Smile Brilliant reached out to me.
I have had the privilege of working with Smile Brilliant multiple times, and now we are doing our fourth project together! They are a brand and a company I have grown to trust and love, as I literally use their products every day. Their newest addition though, is Dental Probiotics. You chew one a day (at night after brushing your teeth) and you are all set! So quick and easy to add into your routine, and they taste good too (like, for real).
I know we hear about “regular” probiotics all the time, so what are dental probiotics good for? Um a bunch of things. Allow me to enlighten you. They allow healthy bacteria in your mouth AND in your sinuses! Yeah remember? These things are connected. They also help fight plaque build-up and decay, as well as supports good breath. Aside from these great results, the dental probiotics also help build your immunity. YES! These little chewables can help your cold/flu immune support. That is one thing I thought was really great about them. The more to help me not get sick, the better. Also, anything that helps my sinuses, count me in on that too.
One more cool thing, they also have Oral Probiotics for kids! Which is great considering I feel like I only get sick after I have been around my nieces and nephews…
I recommend giving them a try. The bottle is a 30 day supply, so perfect to try out for a month.
But also while I am at it, let me remind you of their other great products I love. LIKE THEIR TEETH WHITENING. This is definitely something I am trying to keep up on since I have my wedding coming up. I love the custom trays, and the results are great and lasting. Which is especially good since I love my coffee. Read up on my latest review of their custom whitening trays here, they are bomb!
But the product I use every day is Smile Brilliant’s CariPro Electric Tooth brush. I even got my fiancé and one of our roommates to start using one too. I just love how it has multiple settings, like SENSITIVE, for my always sensitive teeth. My review of the best tooth brush here.
If you do check Smile Brilliant out, which you should, be sure to use my code THEBLAW20 for 20% off!
If you have been following along, then you know about my braces journey. How could you not know, it was all I could complain about 😆. Well, I have had them off for five months now AND I LOVE IT! Except, now I obsess about wearing my retainer. I swear one time I didn’t wear it for four hours, and a tooth moved. I literally wear it all the time because I don’t want to waste all the money I spent. Not to toot my own horn, but I have gotten pretty good at speaking with a retainer in. Except for when I am dehydrated and talking too fast, which let’s be real, that is all the time. But on a good day, or more in a good moment, I speak pretty clear with a minimal lisp.
Anyways, this post is not about my old news braces, it is about oral care and whitening. I had the opportunity to work with Smile Brilliant about three years ago trying out their custom whitening trays (read my first post here), then again two years ago to try their cariPro Electric Toothbrush (read that post here). They quickly became a company that I know and trust (and not just because their products are great, but their people are great too!)
The first time I tried their custom at-home teeth whitening system was before I had braces. Once I got my braces on I was sad that I had to throw my trays away. With this program, you get to make custom trays with molds they send you at home. Super easy to do. But since these trays are specifically designed for YOUR teeth, I couldn’t use mine anymore. So when Smile Brilliant reached out recently asking how I was doing and if we wanted to work together again, they offered me the opportunity to create new trays for my newly straightened teeth. You bet I was so excited to use these again because I KNOW it works, and I really wanted to whiten my new smile.
Same program as last time, I received the starter pack in the mail: the mold materials, instructions, and pre-paid package to send them back. I created my molds and even though this was the second time I have done this, I still messed up and had to use the extra materials they give you for a re-do, THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING MY PERFECTIONISM. After I sent them in, I waited for their lab to create my teeth, I mean trays.
When they finally arrived, I was so anxious to get started. You have to remember that you brush first with just water, then put a thin layer of the whitening solution in each tray toward the front portion of the tray, pop them in your mouth and set a timer. You can have them in from 45 minutes to three hours! I have only ever been able to go an hour and 15 minutes because I have sensitive teeth, but I still see results with the shorter amounts of time. Once you are done with the whitening, you rinse out the trays, and put the desensitizing gel in the same way, and pop that on your teeth for 15-20 minutes. This helps with any sensitivity after whitening.
This time around, my teeth have been more sensitive, my assumption is because I had braces scraped off my teeth. I was educated that teeth get dehydrated, and was advised when I take a break from whitening, to use the trays with just the desensitizing gel a couple nights, then go back to whitening. This seemed to help. I had to take two to three days off at a time this time, so getting to the whiteness I wanted took a little longer, but I could see results with each session and I am really happy about it. These photos are about four weeks apart, whitening about every three days. It is so exciting to have my braces off AND have bright, white teeth! I really recommend Smile Brilliant as an affordable at-home teeth whitening system and have been recommending them since the first time I got to try their system. It is just so simple and really delivers results!
Before and after 2018!
Before and after 2021!
Their custom teeth whitening is not the only thing I love though. I am still in love with my cariPRO electric tooth brush. It is probably obvious that I am all about products for sensitive teeth, and this electric tooth brush has a “sensitive” setting, which is the main setting I use. The battery also lasts FOREVER. The next thing on my list to try is their cordless water flosser! I have only tried a water flosser once, and it had a cord and didn’t seem super easy. I have heard that once you use a water flosser (a good one), you will never want to go back to normal flossing, so I am super excited to try that. I have only heard good things about it.
A couple other products Smile Brilliant offers is a custom night guard to help with clenching your teeth and grinding your teeth at night, and a plaque highlighter to temporarily show you where plaque is gathering on your teeth so you know where to brush really well. This can be used by adults and kids, and I think it would be fun to use with my niece. We can see who is better at brushing their teeth and make it a game. Smile Brilliant also has oral probiotics coming out soon to help repopulate good bacteria in your mouth!
So many good things, that is why I really love and recommend this company. They take oral health very seriously, not just getting your teeth white. I can’t wait to keep my custom trays now that my teeth won’t be changing, and use them a couple times a month to keep any new stains off of my teeth. Once you get to the whiteness you want, it is just a matter of maintaining it.
Also, use my code ‘THEBLAWTB20’ for 20% off any purchase from Smile Brilliant! Be sure to share what you end up trying! I can’t wait to see everyone’s beautiful white smiles! 😬
My teeth are something that I have been extra into over the last year. I didn’t have bad oral hygiene habits before, but I would say it was just average. I really didn’t floss that much and would mainly focus on making sure I brushed my teeth before bed and in the morning. After I got braces about a year ago, my teeth are on my mind literally all the time. I brush after every meal and even after some snacks depending on what it was. It is my worst fear for these braces, which are the clear brackets, to look gross. When Smile Brilliant reached out to me and asked if I wanted to work with them again, I felt like it was meant to be! I worked with them a couple years ago for their teeth whitening kit and they are so amazing and so nice. This time around I got the chance to try their new electric tooth brush, the CariPRO Ultrasonic, and let me tell you that it did not disappoint.
I haven’t used an electric toothbrush since I was young, and I can’t even remember what kind it was. All I remember was that my parents bought it for my siblings and I and it didn’t really excite me to brush my teeth. It was just basic and had one setting. When I received the CariPRO I was so excited to get started. It has five different settings so the first time I started off on the first setting “Clean”. I was so surprised at how much it tickled! That passed after a few uses but it was still funny. The CariPRO is timed which is awesome. Your whole brush session is two minutes, four increments of thirty seconds separated by short pauses. At the pause you know it is time to move to a different area of your teeth. I love this feature! This way I know that I am brushing my teeth long enough and well enough every time.
The second mode is “White”. This one sounds a bit more intense, you can hear the bristles moving faster and see the longer ones on the top and bottom are going back and forth very quickly. This mode is exciting because who doesn’t want help whitening their teeth? Especially if you’re trying to keep your braces white like me, or you are a coffee drinker… also like me. Using this toothbrush daily is supposed to help remove more surface stains and get your teeth up to two times whiter, um YES PLEASE!
The third mode is “Massage”. This mode has a significantly different sound, you can hear and feel it pulsing. Now the fourth mode, “Gum Care” has my favorite sound. I don’t even know if I can describe it, it is almost like it goes up and down kind of like an alarm. My six year old niece described it like an alien spaceship! Regardless of the sounds, both of these modes feel great on your teeth and gums. The last mode is “Sensitive”. I probably like this mode the most as I have really sensitive teeth and always have. This mode feels more gentle yet I know my teeth are still getting a good clean.
This brush is super easy to use. It has a power button and you can either use the arrow button below it to pick your mode before turning it on or you can switch through the modes while you have it on, that’s it, so simple. The charger is small, the brush just sits right on top and get this, it stays charged for thirty days! That is so awesome! This way if you go on vacation you don’t have to pack the charger with you. The basic, or “individual”, package also comes with an extra brush head so you and someone else in your house can both benefit, but you can also order additional heads or replacement heads without buying a whole new toothbrush (check out info on the brush heads here). I HIGHLY recommend this toothbrush. I feel like it has totally changed my teeth game and I am even more excited to use it when these braces are off. The feel of clean teeth is already amazing but they feel SO CLEAN after using this brush. I used my normal toothbrush the other night and it just wasn’t the same, I only want to use my CariPRO now.
I have two exciting announcements. One is that you can use promo code theblawtb20 to get 20% off your own CariPRO Ultrasonic electric toothbrush, and two is that WE ARE GIVING ONE AWAY! You heard that right! Click the giveaway link below and enter (super easy, just your first name and email) for a chance to win your own individual set (so one base and two brush heads). I promise you will love it and your teeth will too. Thank me later when you’re sporting your pearly whites!
Giveaway link here!
(I am also linking the frequently asked questions here in case you want to learn more!)
I got the opportunity to use the custom whitening kit from Smile Brilliant and I have to say I am impressed. To be honest I was a little nervous to try it. One because my teeth are not all that straight and I was worried the whiting gel wouldn’t be even on my teeth. Two, every time I’ve ever tried to whiten my teeth, which has only been with either the strips or the mouthwash, I got shooting pains up my teeth and gums (mostly from the strips). I have really sensitive teeth. I can’t bite into ice cream and I prefer cool or room temperature water to ice water because I can’t handle the cold. I was determined to try it though, I am a coffee drinker and we all know how great that is on your teeth. With Smile Brilliant I ended up being pleasantly surprised on both of my concerns.
I received my kit in the mail and was a little intimidated by it! The kit comes with the material (two part) to make your custom tray fittings, the holders, the whitening gel and desensitizing gel, and I was just thinking what do I do?! Before I completely worried I read the directions, which were simple and made me feel better. First step before anything was molding my teeth so I could mail in my impressions to get my custom trays. You have to make a top and a bottom impression (obviously) but you get three containers of the impression material. I understood why after my first impression came out wrong. There is a blue and a white material. You have to mix them together within one minute until you see no more white. I was frantically mixing until I realized how easily they mix. Then you roll it “hotdog style” and lay it in the tray. You put the tray in your mouth and bite down being careful not to scrape the front, not to bite down too hard but also making sure you bite down enough. The mold and tray stays in for three minutes, yes you will drool! I did my top first and when I got it out I noticed I bit too hard in the front because my front tooth broke through the mold and there was a hole in it. I did the bottom next and those came out perfect, then I used the third and last set of material and redid my top. Thank you Smile Brilliant for thinking about people like me who sometimes need a second chance because they overthink. Molds were complete! Next step was to send them in the prepaid envelope to Smile Brilliant so they could make my custom trays.
The turnaround on the trays wasn’t long at all. I got a notification that my impressions were received and not long after, maybe a week give or take, my trays arrived in the mail. Now I was ready to try it out. I read the directions again to be sure. First you brush your teeth with just water, then put the whitening gel in the trays (1/4-1/3 of the syringe), dry your teeth and put them on. It was pretty simple and the trays were surprisingly comfortable. You can leave them on for 45 minutes up to 3 hours. I started off with 45 minutes as 3 hours seemed a bit ambitious for my first time. After your timer goes off you take off the trays, rinse them well with cold water, then brush your teeth with toothpaste. After that you dry your trays, then put the desensitizing gel in, dry your teeth, and do it again. This part is only 15-20 minutes. The desensitizing gel is to help with tooth sensitivity and help prevent re-staining. It was recommended to do this whole process at night that way after you finish the desensitizing gel you can just go to bed. When you take the trays out that time you just rinse them and leave your teeth alone, no need to brush. You also don’t drink anything after. That was it, so simple! I noticed a slight difference even after my first round!
I started whitening every other day, or I attempted every other day, there were a few longer gaps, as my teeth probably couldn’t handle every day. Towards the end my teeth were getting a little more sensitive but still bearable. I was actually able to up my whitening time to an hour! So proud. Now I have whitened I think 10 times and I am so happy with the results! I smile in the mirror a lot to see the difference. I have even gotten a few compliments that my teeth were white. That has totally helped with my confidence as I have always been self conscious about my teeth because they are not straight. I am happy to say though that in the next month or two I am getting braces and you can bet when I get them off I will be using Smile Brilliant again! I totally recommend them. Once you have your trays you can always buy refills of the gel later so this is a system you can keep and use for a long time. I love that I will be able to keep it for when special events are coming up or just to maintain a white smile. I am smiling bright now!
GIVEAWAY!! —> Click the link to enter to win a whitening kit of your own from Smile Brilliant! www.smilebrilliant.com/g/theblawor use my code theblaw15 for 15% off your order!
the.B.Law 