Whitening strip products (Crest White Strips ®) - Disadvantages / Safety issues / Are whitening strips bad for your teeth?

What are the disadvantages of using teeth whitening strip products?

A) White strip products only whiten front teeth.

One of the criticisms leveled at white strips systems is they can only be used to whiten front teeth. This, however, may or may not be much of a concern to you as a product user. It simply depends on the extent to which your back teeth show when you smile.

Any whitening strips product can usually be counted on to cover over at least the user's center six front teeth (eyetooth to eyetooth). How much further beyond this they will reach simply depends on the cumulative "length" of your teeth in relationship to the length of the strip.

Some whitening strips manufacturers (Rembrandt ®) have tried to capitalize on this sizing deficit by making their whitening strips relatively longer than traditional Whitestrips ®. Additionally, Crest's Whitestrips ® Supreme strips are longer in length than other Whitestrips ® products. [Crest White Strips is a registered trademark of the Proctor & Gamble Company.]

B) Whitening strips can be difficult to apply and keep in place.

Whitening strips can be a bit tedious to deal with. They are relatively flimsy and therefore a little hard to handle. They must be removed from their packaging and placed with care. During treatment they must be monitored so to insure that they are still in place. For some people, using whitening strips may be more of a struggle than just filling and wearing bleaching trays.

When in place, the tackiness of a whitening strip's whitener helps to secure it in place. Even so, some people will find that whitening strips are easily dislodged, even to the point of substantially disrupting their treatment session. In regard to these matters, different brands of whitening strips have different characteristics. As an example, we see feed back from site visitors that suggest that Crest Whitestrips ® and Rembrandt ® Whitening strips each have their own unique properties, therefore making each of these products the preferred brand for different people.

C) A tray-based teeth whitening approach may be more effective than using white strips technique.

There are several clinical studies that have concluded that bleaching teeth with white strips products can be as effective as using a 10% carbamide peroxide tray-based teeth whitening system (Ferrari [2007], Gerlach [2000][2003], Karpinia [2002]).

This opinion doesn't, however, seem to be universally accepted by all dental practitioners, nor all researchers (Bizhang [2009]). But even if accurate, this concern is only one of comparative effectiveness and not an implication that teeth whitening strips don't work. They do.

Dissolving whitening strips.

As a variation of standard whitening strips technique, there are brands of strips (such as Listerine Whitening ® Quick Dissolving Strips) that dissolve away on their own. Typically these products are designed to dissolve within 5 to 10 minutes after they have been applied. This feature might be a desirable characteristic for some whitening strips users. We will mention, however, two points of conjecture.

One is that the dissolving action of the strip would seem to limit the duration of the treatment time that it provides (5 to possibly 15 minutes as compared to 30 minutes with other whitening strips products). It also would seem that the barrier nature of the plastic film of a traditional whitening strip would offer more protection to the whitener from dilution by saliva and also help to minimize the direct exposure of the whitener to the user's lips and cheeks.

White strips products: Safety concerns.

White strips treatment provides a consistent and controlled dosing of whitener.

White strips are unique in the world of tooth bleaching products in the sense that the dosing of whitener that they deliver per treatment is extremely consistent. This is because the whitener is applied by the manufacturer when they are made. In light of the unsupervised nature of the use of over-the-counter teeth whitening products and concerns about safety, the creation of side effects, and product effectiveness, this is a nice feature.

In contrast, with tray whitening systems the amount of whitener that is used for each individual treatment can be quite variable. The total dosing of whitener is a function of both the design of the bleaching tray (or lack thereof) and the user's behavior. It has been calculated that a whitening treatment utilizing a 6% hydrogen peroxide whitening strip involves one-half to one-fifth as much peroxide as a comparable treatment using a tray-based system with a 10% carbamide peroxide bleaching gel. Similar whitening effect with less exposure to the bleaching agent. That's a good thing.

Are whitening strips bad for your teeth?

There's much less dental literature available on the topic of teeth whitening strip safety than there is for tray whitening systems utilizing a 10% carbamide peroxide whitener. However, since the chemistry involved with both systems is essentially the same, it's reasonable to assume that their safety concerns essentially the same also.

No, using teeth whitening strips is not bad for your teeth. Just as with tray-based 10% carbamide peroxide whitening systems, clinical research and trials (not to mention 10 years of use by the general population) have not demonstrated any significant long-term or irreversible adverse effects in regards to the use to teeth whitening strips and hard dental tissues, soft oral tissues or tooth nerve tissue (of course, when the product is used within its suggested guidelines).

There is no FDA oversight or evaluation of teeth whitening products.

You should be aware of the fact that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not categorize teeth whitening products as drugs and therefore does not regulate them. This means that some of the teeth whitening products that you find available possibly have not been through the rigorous testing that you might have expected.

This is not the case with Crest White Strips ®. The dental literature contains an ample number of studies that have been conducted by Proctor & Gamble and others evaluating both the effectiveness and safety of White Strips ® products. In light of the wide spread availability of their product line and its comparatively low cost, there seems little prudence in purchasing generic white strips products.

Always wash your hands after manipulating whitening strips.

You should always wash your hands of after working with whitening strips. The peroxide whitener (hydrogen peroxide) will rub off onto your fingers. And there is potential that this whitener will subsequently irritate your fingers (minor, usually painless, creates white patches on your skin) or, irritate or spoil other objects that you touch (pets, eyes, clothing, furniture).