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I keep getting these advertisements for a Premium Home Whitening Kit. It is a bit less expensive than my dentist charges, but I am not sure if it is safe or even if it works. Have you seen this kit before? What are your thoughts on it?
Letty
Dear Letty,
So looking at this kit, there is one really good thing and then one thing that can negate that plus. The good thing is their whitening ingredient. This kit uses 35% carbamide peroxide. This is a good strength. My only concern is it will lose a lot of that potency because of their whitening “trays”. If you look at the image above, you can see that the trays a dentist will provide for your teeth whitening are custom fit for each arch of your teeth. They will fit snug to your teeth, one for each arch.
The trays that come with this kit are a DIY sort of thing. The tray they provide is not nearly as fit to your bite. This will have a threefold problem. The first two have to do with wasting that precious whitening gel.
When the trays do not fit as they should, some of your gel will leak out completely wasting it. In addition, your saliva will leak which in turn will weaken the gel even further. So that nice strength will be knocked in half. That means you will have to purchase more kits to get the results you want. That sort of cancels out the cost benefit.
A third problem with these trays not being fit is that your gums are not protected from the gel. This can not only cause irritation, but there has been a documented case of someone needing a root canal treatment as a result of a DIY teeth whitening kit. In that case, it was Crest Whitestrips, which only has a 6% whitening strength.
In all honesty, I think you will get more bang for your buck with your dentist. If the cost is holding you up, sometime after your next cleaning, let him know that you want to whiten your teeth and ask if he will allow you to pay it out.
This blog is brought to you by Lafayette, LA Dentist Dr. John Theriot.