Illegal Teeth Whitening Is Not Worth The Risk

With reports of dangerous whitening kits being offered online and door to door, here’s why you shouldn’t use them.

There have been a couple of reports recently, on the BBC website and elsewhere, about illegal teeth whitening treatments being offered at cheap prices. This comes several years after legislation was passed meaning that this procedure can only be offered within a dental environment, rather than in places like beauty salons as was the case before. Unfortunately, it seems that there are always people prepared to put others at risk in order to make some money!

Some of these sellers allow anyone to buy the product, not only for their own use, but for resale too. Some will even ‘brand’ it for you to make it look a unique product. Sadly, these kits are unregulated and are extremely damaging to your teeth and gums as we will shortly see. In some cases, they could also affect your general health too. We think our Chelmsford patients will agree after reading this, that they are definitely to be avoided.

What’s the problem?

One issue is that some people probably think that their teeth are just a solid block of material, similar to a dental crown. This is not the case though and a tooth is made of several parts, including the nerves. It’s a complex structure that can sometimes cause problems as anyone who has had a bad toothache will attest.

Some people also think that teeth whitening can’t do any harm as it only affects the tooth surface, but this is not the case. Most teeth whitening products also lighten the inner part of the tooth as well. Naturally then, this has to be regulated to ensure its safety, along with training for those applying the treatment. You can be sure that all of our cosmetic dentists that treat you will have had the relevant training.

Product issues

There are two key issues here. The simple one is that applying even the teeth whitening gel that we use at Blue Sky Dental, which is perfectly safe when applied professionally, could cause burns to the soft tissue of the mouth if applied incorrectly, which will almost certainly be the case if you apply it yourself or let a friend do it.

To magnify this issue, what makes these kits really dangerous is the strength of the whitening ingredient that has been found in them.

To put things into context, the amount of hydrogen peroxide (the active whitening ingredient) that is allowed in teeth whitening toothpastes is 0.1%. This is obviously quite weak and which will, in reality, have little effect. It is kept this low for safety reasons. The maximum amount that we are allowed to use in our Chelmsford dental clinic is 6%. This is a lot higher and allows for the fact that it is being applied by trained professionals and in a medical environment. Done in this way, it is perfectly safe.

The most concerning issue with these kits is that some of them have been found to contain up to 53%, a ridiculously high and dangerous amount. This level of hydrogen peroxide is almost guaranteed to damage your teeth and gums etc and should be avoided at all costs, however cheap it might be.

Likely illegal whitening problems

Let us take a look now, at some of the possible damage that might be caused if you did use these kits.

Chemical burns

Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical and one that can burn through soft tissue very quickly. This includes your gums, cheeks, tongue and lips. You are likely to experience significant pain as it does this with blisters, swelling and ulcers possible. These are likely to last for up to several weeks and may require medical treatment.

Tooth structure damage

As mentioned before, a tooth is a complex part of the body and there are a number of things likely to happen if this amount of hydrogen peroxide is applied to them. These include:

1 – Damaged enamel, leading to a heightened risk of tooth decay and some significant sensitivity to hot and cold food and drinks

2 – Damage to the pulp within the root canals. This is the area of the tooth where the nerves are located. As you can imagine, this could be extremely painful and could lead to inflammation or even death of the pulp material. There is a strong chance that you would need to have a root canal procedure or, very possibly, have the tooth extracted.

3 – Cosmetic damage. Less ‘important’ than the health of your teeth, but especially given that the product is supposed to improve the appearance of teeth, the results are likely to be exactly the opposite due to the damage caused to them.

4 – Other risks. Swallowing the product could cause serious burns to the throat and stomach and could also cause breathing issues due to the gases released as the chemicals burn the flesh.

As you can see from the above, under no circumstances should you use these products, and, if one is offered to you, please report it to the police as these are not only illegal but very dangerous too.

We do understand that for some people, it might seem a cost effective way of having whiter teeth. It is far too dangerous to risk this though and if you would like to have whiter teeth, we strongly recommend that you talk to us first. We offer a safe and pain free teeth whitening procedure at an affordable price. We also offer a range of payment plans to enable you to spread the cost of any payment.

To find out more about the teeth whitening options we offer, or any other cosmetic or general dental treatments, you can contact Blue Sky Dental by calling us on 01245 211070.