Illegal tooth whitening will put you at risk

14-02-2020

Everyone is out to get their perfect smile. Celebrities have made it the norm to want perfectly straight and white teeth.

Obviously, treatments like this come at a cost, and it’s usually for good measure.

It is illegal for anyone other than a registered dental professional to carry out tooth whitening. And for good reason.

There is a worrying trend of people carrying out tooth whitening and orthodontics at a heavily discounted price, which is great for your pocket, but they don’t have any sort of dental traning at all, and are underqualified to be carrying out any sort of dental treatment. It’s dangerous for everyone involved, but especially for the unknowing patient.

Dentists train for between 5 and 7 years at University. This is so they know how to work with teeth. We are regulated by the GDC and the CQC. We have to be registered so that we can be monitored on what treatments we are performing and how well we are performing them. We are regulated and we have rules that we must follow at all times. We have to be insured, so that if anything does go wrong, we are covered, and you as a patient are covered.

All of our products come from reputable traders that deal with only dental products. They have been tested and deemed safe for use on people. Even so, a few years ago, we were limited to the strength of gel we could use on patients, and now anything abover a certain percentage can only be used in surgery and under supervision, and not at home.

But a beautician specialises in beauty products, and surely that is what tooth whitening falls under?

The people carrying out these procedures, quite frankly, don’t know what they are doing. Most of them seem to be beauticians, or they work in salons. They have perhaps been on a half day ‘course’ to show them how to whiten teeth, and the course isn’t run by a dental professional. In fact, it’s illegal for anyone to be carrying out any sort of whitening procedure unless they are a registered dental professional.

There have been a few cases recently that have been in the news, whereby people have found ‘whitening providers’ online and had whitening carried out, only to find out that their gums have been burnt, and their teeth possibly damaged for life, by someone claiming they can do a great deal on tooth whitening.

Put it this way. Would you trust your local beautician to carry out open heart surgery? Of course not. They’re not trained to carry out such an extensive procedure. So why trust them to whiten your teeth?

And it’s not just the risk to your teeth, its the risk to your health too. You know how your hairdresser always does a skin test before they dye your hair incase you suffer an allergic reaction? Well, what happens if you have an allergic reaction to whitehing gel? We are all trained in medical emergencies. We are required to have a defibrilator in practice, along with a full basic medical emergencies kit. What happens if you go into shock because of the gel? Or because the gel is burning your gums away, and your body doesn’t know how to deal with it?It’s just not  worth it. And a lot of people only realise theres an issue when it’s too late.

We only charge what we do because:

• of the training the dentists and nurses have been through to make sure you are safe
• we use properly tested products that come from reputable dental only traders
• we are properly regulated by several governing bodies to make sure we are doing things right across the board.
• we make sure you are dentally fit before carrying out whitening. If your teeth are damaged, or you have gum disease, whitening is only going to make existing problems worse.
• we can get you out of trouble, should the need arise.

If you are considering tooth whitening, please come to see us first. £50 tooth whitening may seem like a good idea, but in the long run, it could affect your teeth, your health, and even your wallet to correct any issues. It may end up costing much more than a trip to the dentist.

Please follow the links below to the above two stories related to the images above:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7755385/Mother-claims-gums-severely-burned-following-botched-teeth-whitening-procedure.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-51427686/illegal-teeth-whitening-courses-put-public-at-risk?fbclid=IwAR0gDUhnK8xilpS-Hs4TO2dcCRYeCK47zHvr9Bl6M8QNMhqpPAQ6OIy6koA