Dentists Go Off The Record On White Strips

What dentists told us off the record about teeth whiteners + a product to think about.

CHEAP + EFFECTIVE | While our own jury of dentists gave a thumbs down to repeated, long term brushing with baking soda as a safe way to whiten teeth (CLICK HERE for our story), every one of them we spoke to on the topic sought fit to add—on the condition of anonymity—that white strips really were as effective a bleaching agent as the bleaching gel dentists provide with their custom-made application trays for in-home teeth bleaching kits.

One dentist we spoke with suggested that his patients use white strips because they are infinitely cheaper than “fancy laser whitening [a.k.a. light-accelerated bleaching],” which has proven no more effective than bleaching with hydrogen peroxide, the ingredient commonly found in both bleaching gel and white strips.

Another dentist told us that while custom-made plastic bleaching trays may be super easy to use because they fit the natural contours of the teeth, that feature alone does not warrant the extra cost or substantially affect the outcome of the bleaching process.

As for the white strips product itself, Crest appears to have a lock on the market, though we did find one other whitening kit—a kind of doppelganger—that is pretty much half the price of Crest white strips so, depending on how you feel about shopping at Walmart, you might want to check it out.

At $15.18 for 28 applications, Walmart’s own brand Equate Dental Whitening Strips (available in the U.S. or online) is way less expensive than the least expensive Crest white strips product and appears to have virtually the same ingredients. I know a woman with beautiful teeth who has used Equate for some time, and other than saying the strips themselves are a little thicker than the Crest white strips, she has found both products equally effective. —Olivia Pittman

Visit www.walmart.com find out more about Equate Dental Whitening Strips.

Photo: iStock