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For the last couple months I’ve been using a teeth whitener to shine up my pearly whites. I’m quite happy with the results.

My teeth aren’t black or horribly discolored. I don’t smoke and rarely drink red wine, those are two things that can really darken a smile. But my teeth are just a bit yellow. And darn it, I want a nice smile.

I bought a “boil-n-bite” tray set and 15 ml of 22% carbamide peroxide from Dentist.net for a total of about $40.

The boil-n-bite set came with 4 trays… good thing because my first attempt at making a form fitting tray failed. But the next two attempts (top and bottom arch) went just fine. It was a matter of warming up the tray quickly (5 seconds instead of the suggested 15 seconds) and using all my fingers to squish the trays into place. I looked a bit odd with all 10 fingers in my mouth while hovering over the stove.. but hey.

I got 22% because… well, because I’m cheap. 10% is only a few pennies cheaper but is supposedly recommended for “beginners”. Bah. I’ll admit that the first couple times I did it, I had to take the trays out after about 30 minutes because of a burning sensation in my gums, but I’m good now.

I brush my teeth, squeeze about 0.5 ml into the tray along the tooth-line in the tray, and plunk it in my mouth. I usually do both the uppers and lowers at the same time. Though I’ve done my uppers more often because that’s what people see the most. I leave them in for 45 min to 1 1/2 hrs depending on how I’m feeling and how fed up I get with having bulky trays in my mouth.

After about 5 sessions, my teeth were noticeably whiter. Importantly, they still look natural. They’re not monochromatically WHITE but an imperfect and naturally looking white-er.

The last couple sessions haven’t gotten them much whiter, but that was expected. I’ve read that the first couple sessions give the most benefit.

I could have gone to a dentist or Brite Smile but I seriously wasn’t interested in paying $600 for WHITE teeth… $40 was more my style, even if I have to stick trays in my mouth for months instead of a single 2 hr dentist visit.

Last but not least, it very much appears to be “safe and effective”. I couldn’t find anyone online that had problems with the stuff.

update 12-30-05:It’s been 8 months since I used the teeth whitening stuff and I’m still happy with the results. I went to a dentist a few weeks ago and I asked about teeth whitening products. They compared my tooth color to some tooth color swatches they had; my teeth compared to the second whitest in their swatches and they said I definitely didn’t need whitening… though they’d oblige me if I still wanted to give them money. I thought that was a bit strange because before I went in, I was thinking I might need some more whitening. I guess I’ve got a little tooth-color-anorexia. Suffice to say, I’m still happy with the results.

The report took the US intelligence community severely to task for a series of shortcomings it said led to the false conclusion that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, justifying the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

(Source)

Still looking for scapegoats? I remember seeing a parade of individuals in positions of authority saying that there were no WMD. People like Charles Duelfer, head of the UN Iraq Survey Group, and “official CIA reports” (so said the news).

And I recall about 2 1/2 years ago there was a stink about the president ignoring reports by the CIA and UN that said that there were no WMDs.

Yes, Mr. Hussein is a very un-nice person. But there are lots of un-nice national rulers in the world. Why not pin a target on those guys chests?

Ok, so, we went to war to put a presence in the mid-east for national security’s sake. Just freaking say that!

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I will go to my grave being angry at Colin Powell for lying in front of the UN Security Council and the tens of millions of people watching on TV. His appearance before the council on February 2nd, 2003 is what convinced me that the war was justified. He used his tremendous stage presence to deceive me.

How do I know he’s lying? He talked about a tremendous amount of “verified” incriminating evidence. Yet not a single scrap of evidence was ever found, not by the UN inspectors and not by the US military. Not a single molecule. [update 4-2-05. This statement is incorrect. See Comments below] I find it odd that we can recover data off a hard drive that has been overwritten 5 times and then smashed with a hammer but not find any traces of sought after chemicals in one out of at least “65 such facilities in Iraq” (Powell).