It’s around that time of year when the air is filled with the smell of sunscreen, fake tan and hair bleach, as we come out of hibernation ready to start our hot vax summer routines. An essential step to falling in line with the Internet beauty standard is getting yourself some celebrity-grade white teeth. What once was a long and expensive process has now been made convenient with at-home teeth whitening kits delivered straight to your home. But are at-home teeth whitening kits really safe to use?
Here’s the kind of shocking truth behind your favourite influencer’s favourite product.
How do at-home teeth whitening kits work?
Most kits operate in the same way – they usually come with a mouth tray and whitening gel, and some also include an LED light to complete the experience.
Hydrogen Peroxide is the most common whitening agent in the gels, used by brands including Opalescence and Crest. It works by penetrating the tooth enamel to remove both extrinsic and intrinsic stains. It is a generally safe and common ingredient used by actual dentists too.
Due to the growing awareness about the damage that can be caused by incorrect use of hydrogen peroxide, some companies, like iWhite and HiSmile, have switched to alternatives like phthalimido peroxy caproic acid (PAP). PAP is a whitening agent most commonly used in laundry detergents.
There are also kits that market a natural approach, using things like activated charcoal, baking soda and peppermint oil. These ingredients bind and draw out toxins, helping breakdown stains.
With most at-home whitening kits, you can start to see results within a couple of days and teeth do become visibly whiter. However the results typically don’t last very long. Most companies say that the results will last three to four weeks. To maintain results, they encourage regular use… and therein lies one of the key problems.
Why are at-home teeth whitening kits risky?
Unlike an in-dentist whitening session, with at-home kits you don’t have an expert on-hand to make sure everything is done correctly and safely. Principal dentist and owner of Smiles Centre, Dr Hashmita Bagga-Josan says improper use and application can have dangerous and painful consequences.
“A big issue that we see caused by these kits is chemical burn. We’ve seen patients who consistently use kits, especially with an LED light, come in with irreversible damage to their gums because of intense chemical burns.” When you’re using an at-home kit unguided, it can be difficult to keep the gel from getting on your gums, leaving them vulnerable.
Dr Bagga-Josan says overuse also causes real problems for young people using at-home whitening kits. “Teeth whitening can become somewhat addictive. You are only supposed to whiten your teeth every six months, yet people use these kits every two weeks, sometimes weekly, causing major damage.”
“At local concentrates, once in a while [at-home kits] don’t damage teeth, but when you do it so often and there’s no one monitoring it and it becomes an addiction, we see damages to the enamel.” Once the protective enamel is eroded, it’s gone – your body doesn’t produce more – and it leaves the softer dentine exposed, making it your teeth most susceptible to decay… which of course opens up a whole other set of health issues.
Even PAP as a supposedly ‘safer’ option to hydrogen peroxide plays into the issue of overuse. PAP teeth whitening products have low reports of efficacy, with 5% PAP is equivalent to around 3% peroxide. This means you will need to use the product more often to see results, leading to enamel damage and making your teeth more susceptible to decay.
Why are they allowed to be sold, then?
Dr Hashmita Bagga-Josan says the gaps in regulation of at-home teeth whitening kits is the key issue, rather than the ingredients themselves. “If something goes wrong in a dental chair during whitening, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) will come and investigate and potentially reclaim your license. But if something goes wrong with an at-home teeth whitening kit bought online, there’s no one to mandate it.”
It’s because at-home teeth whitening kits are classified as a beauty service instead of a dental treatment, and most non-invasive beauty services are not formally regulated. The Australian Dental Industry Association allows non-registered dental professionals to administer peroxide based whitening products with less than 6% hydrogen peroxide. While the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is responsible for upholding that rule, many at-home teeth whitening kits have up to 15% hydrogen peroxide.
Because those highly concentrated products are self-administered, rather than by a professional who has liability, who do customers or dentists issue their complaints against? Under the existing regulation, the brands and companies are technically selling a ‘safe’ product which has been made dangerous through user error.
Are there safer alternatives to give you white teeth?
Although they are marketed to sound safer, Dr Bagga-Josan says whitening toothpastes or pens might not be a better alternative. “A lot of these products have bi-carbonate in them, which is very abrasive and they don’t really whiten your teeth anyway. Continued abrasion can damage and leave your teeth sensitive. It’s like using a harder scrub to clean your tiles – it will clean them but it will leave a mark, even if you can’t see it straight away.”
We’re much better off asking why we need blindingly white teeth at all? Why has this become part of the beauty standard, at the expense of perfectly healthy, functioning teeth? Teeth whitening is arguably a gateway to permanent and damaging measures including the growing trend of young people having their healthy teeth filed down to ‘pegs’ be replaced with eerily straight, white crowns or veneers. The real teeth don’t ever grow back.
“I’ve had three cases in the last year where women who have only a few missing (teeth) and could go with a partial denture have actually chosen to get a full set of dentures just so they could have a nice set of big white teeth,” says Dr Bagga-Josan.
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