A dentist can whiten your teeth easily using teeth whitening products. Actually a dentist uses a teeth whitening product which contains hydrogen peroxide of higher strength. The teeth whitening products that we use at home contains hydrogen peroxide of lower strength. This helps to save your time and efforts in a significant way. That's why most of the people prefer to visit dentist office for teeth whitening.
You want to start with a good cleaning by your dentist...who can also whiten your teeth for less than $500. Then use a whitening toothpaste and try Crest Whitening strips or Rembrandt's, they're both excellent. Keep in mind that your teeth can only be whitened to their normal whiteness and nothing more, so if your normal color isn't as white as you would like, then you may want to think about veneers, but this is very expensive. I would try the cleaning, whitening strips and whitening toothpaste and see what results you get. Then you can decide if you need to invest the money on professional whitening that's done by your dentist. Hope this helps and good luck!