Advertisements for tooth whiteners on television suddenly seem ubiquitous. “Crest whitenning strips”, I think is one brand name, but there are others. So how well do they work? I ask because I’d never heard of these products before, say, a year ago; the only whitening technique I’d heard of required a trip to the dentist and some $$.
I used Crest night Effects and it was awful. YOu had to brush this gel stuff on your teeth and leave it on overnight. It didn’t go on smoothly so I had big chunks of rubbery stuff on my teeth, and it was all gone within about a half hour. I haven’t tried anything else, but wouldn’t use the night effects again.
I used the whitening strips once. They worked OK, but they were a bitch to put on and keep on.
I used Crest Night Effects, too.
It didn’t work very well. I used it faithfully for the two weeks, and my teeth were maybe one shade whiter, maybe not.
I wouldn’t buy it again.
Mrs. Furthur
I’ve used the ‘watered down’ version of the Crest Night Effects (the cheaper kind they make that you put on twice a day, not just overnight), and had decent results. Nothing dramatic: I won’t blind anyone with my teeth anytime soon, but it did take care of some irregular stains caused by drinking a lot of tea.
However, my teeth (which are sensative to begin with) did become a bit more sensative during the time-frame I used it but not as sensative as using a whitning toothpaste makes them.
YMMV, of course.
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Disclaimer: I work for the company who makes Crest Whitestrips.
They worked great for me. I used them on the top teeth only so that I could compare with the bottom teeth. After 2 weeks, they were definitely whiter. One of these days I’ll get around to doing the bottoms but 2 years later you can still see the difference.
I’ve used both the strips and the night products, and had good results. I started using them after Consumer Reports gave them good reviews, and a woman at work used them to good effect–we didn’t know she was using them until a comment was made on how white her teeth looked.
Note that they make you a shade or two lighter–yellow won’t go to white. If that mild effect is your expectation and desire, they work well. You can keep using them to keep lightening, too.
Not all whitening products work, especially the toothpastes. (Unless you get the super-abrasive smoker’s toothpastes, but those work by scraping.) But the Crest and Colgate strips and night stuff do.
Which to use depends on your style. The strips are easy to put on, and if you can ignore them in your mouth, no big hassle. But they are for when you aren’t going to be eating or talking to anyone, or even smiling a lot in public. You can use them on both upper and lower at once, and you can leave them on longer than they say if you want–I try for 45 minutes over the 30 recommended, since I figure they don’t just stop at 30.
The night stuff is not hard to put on, but it does go on chunky, because it is formulated to dry quickly. You feel like it isn’t on right, but in my experience, it works anyway. You brush it off in the morning.
One thing both these products did for me is make my teeth feel very clean and smooth. Must be the peroxide, but it felt great.