Teeth Whitening - Is It Safe?

Loopholes in the law… well, sort of!

As we have all seen, teeth whitening is often carried out in shopping centres and beauty salons, so why is this, and how do they get around the law?
 
The truth is that they are in fact breaking the law, and until recently they have been getting away with it.
 
One common misconception is that if the person selling the teeth whitening is not touching the customer, then they are not performing dentistry. They give all the gel to the customer, and the customer will ‘self-administer’ the whitening. This is a common belief, however, if you read what is in the first paragraph again:
 
It is illegal for "anyone other than a dentist to give treatment, advice or attendance that would normally be given by a dentist".

It is clear that even if someone is offering you teeth whitening without actually touching you, they are breaking the law. And this seems fair, if someone gave you acid and said it was teeth whitening gel, then when things went wrong, their response was "but you did it yourself, I didn't put it on your teeth!"

Is the problem beyond the Beauty Salons?

Beauty salon owners are being sold systems by companies, promising massive profits on their sales. MegaWhite is one such company, and if you look at their website, all the text is focused on how much money the salon owner could make by selling the MegaWhite product.

Here is a recent story of how a salon owner bought into the MegaWhite brand, only to find out that it was illegal, plus MegaWhite's response to this.

Cheap Tooth Whitening

I personally think that these days, the biggest risk with teeth whitening is the risk to your wallet!

Many of the cheap systems use a whitening gel which simply does not work, but you may see visible results – so why is this?

Often when I am doing dental treatments for a long time, the teeth appear whiter at the end of treatment and this is because the teeth dehydrate. With most of these cheap systems, you are asked to put a gel on your teeth, and hold your mouth open in front of a light. This light is supposed to speed up the reaction.

If you just had your mouth open for 30-40 minutes, then your teeth would probably look whiter, just from the dehydration. This is only temporary and after a day or so, they will be back to their original colour.

That’s a nice £100 down the drain, and because they were whiter when you left the salon, it’s almost impossible to get your money back!
 

The other way is with the light, and this is done in the surgery. The biggest brand name for this is Zoom, and this treatment often takes 1-2 hours.
 
Each dentist will have a system that seems to work best for them, my personal preference is the home kit, and I provide two different concentration gels to minimise sensitivity and maximise results. Quite often desensitising before whitening is needed to make the whole procedure as comfortable as possible.

Teeth whitening doesn't last forever, so the maintenance is discussed prior to treatment, and as a dentist is prescribing the treatment, he or she can spot potential problem areas before you start treatment.