If you follow any celebrities on Instagram, you may have seen some of them ranting and raving about a new whitening product. Even Kim Kardashian recently endorsed one of the many brands offering home whitening kits that feature a little blue light designed to activate the whitening product (or maybe just to make you look ridiculous in your Instagram photos… who knows?!)
Most of us have seen the parade of drugstore whitening products that has made its way through our lives over the years of our cultural obsession with whiter and whiter smiles. From chewing gum to over-the-counter whitening strips, and even those weird baking soda mixtures that Pinterest users always seem to be raving about, we’ve seen plenty of “miracle” whitening treatments flare and flop.
But there’s nothing like a celebrity endorsement to get people talking! So how does this blue light whitener measure up?
How it Works
Two writers on Buzzfeed decided to try the product Kim Kardashian endorsed and see if the claims were true. The process seems pretty involved in comparison to a lot of store-bought whitening kits: First, you have to boil the mouthpieces so they can be heat-molded to the shape of your teeth. Then, those molds have to be filled with whitening gel, placed in the mouth, and bathed in that blue light for fifteen minutes. The instructions suggest that you do this for two weeks in order to see results.
Both writers reported that the whole process was inconvenient. One complained of drool build-up, and both found the fifteen minute treatment length inconvenient. But what’s fifteen minutes if you can whiten your teeth at home, right? Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be happening, either.
While one writer saw no noticeable difference to the color of her teeth, the other found that what little difference she did spot was gone within a day. Even worse, one of them found that the treatment quickly caused painful tooth sensitivity.
The Better Solution: Your Dentist
As usual, the bottom line seems to be that the most effective and safe way to whiten your teeth is to simply entrust your whitening to the experts: Dentists.
Here at Dental Excellence of Bluebell, we offer two different types of whitening, including one that utilizes light activation similar to the Kardashian-endorsed system: GLO Whitening. That light can cause peroxide to break its bonds to a stain molecule, forcing it to bond to a different stain molecule, making peroxide whitening more effective.
But unlike the Kardashian-endorsed system that the Buzzfeed writers tried, GLO is specially designed to avoid the tooth sensitivity problem. The treatment time is longer than the other model, but it’s broken up into three shorter sessions, which makes it more comfortable, and improves the effectiveness. And most importantly, it actually works. You can try GLO at our office for a quick treatment, or take it home so you can do treatments whenever is convenient for you.
Interested in teeth whitening? Call (610) 272-0828 or contact us online to learn more about which whitening option is best for you.
