We're in the thick of holiday party season, and if you're anything like me, chances are you're frantically smooshing on those Crest Whitestrips, hoping to score a whiter smile for all those photo ops.

And chances are you're doubling up on the daily Whitestrips dose and torturing your teeth to the point where just breathing brings on pain and sensitivity. Yet you still keep up with those Whitestrips! Even when the normally amusing bubbling sensation of the peroxide is sending waves of pain from your teeth all the way down your spine and into your toes! BECAUSE YOU WANT THE WHITEST TEETH IN THAT FAMILY PICTURE, DAMMIT. Heh. At least I do.

Your grandmother may have told you that sometimes it hurts to be beautiful (advice from the age of girdles and corsets, mind you!), but this just isn't one of those times. There is hope! You can have those blindingly white teeth without the pain!

What is this miracle solution, you ask? Orajel Advanced Tooth Desensitizer. This is serious stuff, my friends, previously available only from the dentist - but now you can get it right from drugstore.com. One treatment relieves tooth sensitivity within a day and then keeps on working for 28 days - so you can whiten to your heart's content and not cry over it.

Because there's no sense having a white smile if you can't even bear the pain of opening your mouth to show it.

$13.99 at drugstore.com