Exploiting The Recession: A Mom's Trick to Whiter Teeth

As part of a new series: "Beauty and the Recession" we examine consumer tips for cosmetics during a recession

Cathy's discovery works wonders for consumers wanting whiter teeth without breaking the bank. Having yellow teeth is embarrassing, can deeply affect your personal life and, like it or not, your career as well. People are turned off (in both a professional and personal sense) by yellow teeth. For years dentists have capitalized on this fact by charging exorbitant prices of $500 or more for "professional" teeth whitening procedures--most of which involve special tooth whitening trays with carbamide peroxide, and/or whitening "pens," that can turn the yellowest of teeth white. Products like Crest Whitening strips are certainly less expensive options (these products seem to hover around the $50-$80 mark depending on the exact treatment), but from our experience they usually don't get the job done. For decades the reality has been simple: if you want white teeth, you have to be willing to spend some serious coin at the dentist. Enter the age of the internet. In this economy, online companies offering dentist-grade teeth whitening products are as desperate as anyone else for new sales. These are companies that actually sell the same type of trays and whitening pens that dentists use. Because they don't have the luxury of "brick and mortar" stores, many of these companies have found they need to do something extra to entice new customers. This week we feature a tip shared with us by Cathy, a single mother of three from Santa Cruz, CA, that capitalizes on the desperation of these companies by combining two free trial* teeth whitening kits, from two totally separate companies, that are similar to what you might get from a dentist (actual tray and whitening pen-type systems). These are systems that have the potential to remove general yellowing, wine stains, coffee stains and smoking stains to give you a true "dentist-strength" whitening. The beauty of this trick, however, isn't just that there are trial offers, but that Cathy was also able to locate two special coupon codes that reduce the shipping charges on each of the products to next to nothing (after the codes shipping is under three dollars total for both products). How does the trick work? Basically, the idea is to combine the two different products to get one full strength whitening using just the trials. Cathy, the mom that shared this trick with us, reported astounding results. "My teeth are whiter and I feel more confident. I'm just happy I didn't shell out the $500 my dentist would have charged!" Cathy's story of how she wound up with yellow teeth sounds all too familiar to some: Well, honestly, I did quite a few things that probably contributed to my yellow teeth. I love a glass of red wine, I'm an avid coffee drinker, and, most regrettably, I started smoking way back in college when I was about 21 years old. I smoked for just over 10 years before finally quitting, and although I'm very happy I did quit, I was disappointed that my teeth really didn't recover. Finally, I was self employed for many years and had little or no dental coverage. I can't claim to have brushed twice a day every single day, but I honestly think I was usually pretty good about it… and I didn't see any improvement, no matter how many "whitening toothpastes" I tried. Anyway, long story short, the coffee (couple cups a day), red wine here and there, and about ten years of smoking made my teeth something I was ashamed of. ...I'm not a rich woman and didn't think I could afford it. But after looking around online, my son helped me find a few special offers (and coupon codes) where you could try the product by only paying a few dollars for shipping. That allowed me to get two different products–completely free!* :). My idea was that I'd just use one first and once I ran out I'd switch to the other, and that's exactly what I did. The results were good with the first product alone, but what I hadn't expected was that when I followed it with the second, I noticed improvements in parts of my teeth that the other product hadn't affected, or had only slightly improved. Like I said, I'm no doctor, dentist, or medical expert, but it appears that each of the separate products focus on DIFFERENT parts of the problem, or that the second one just gave the whitening enough of a "boost" that it finished the job! By using them both in a row I was able to get even better results, and because they both had these crazy special offers, AND I found coupon codes for them, I was able to do the whole thing by just paying a few dollars in shipping charges (the shipping was $1.97 on Dazzle Smile and $0.97 on the other). Thank you to Cathy for this week's consumer tip. Cathy has shared her discovery with thousands of people over the internet. If you're interested in using Cathy's trick, we've provided links and coupon code information below. Remember, to get results like Cathy's, you will want to use BOTH products together. The coupon codes reduce shipping costs to under $3 total ($1.97 for the first, $0.97 for the second, as of 09/12/2009): Step 1: Click here for Dazzle Smile (Use Promo Code: bedazzled) Step 2: Click here for Clean Whites (Use Promo Code: save) Would you like to share a consumer tip for next week? If so, please send us an email.