Why You Should Only Have Teeth Whitened by a Professional

The purpose of this article is to inform you why you should never have your teeth whitened anywhere else other than a certified dental professional.

Of course this would seem obvious to some people, but citizens of the UK are starting to go elsewhere than the dentist’s office teeth whitening and other cosmetic dentistry procedures and it’s creating a dangerous ripple effect that needs to be addressed in this post.

These beauty salons are breaking the law by hiring people to perform these dangerous and foolish teeth-whitening procedures. There have been reports of chemicals in the tooth-whitening material that can cause serious burn damage to gums if applied improperly.

There have been reports of 6 London beauty salons that currently carry out this practice; according to the GDC (General Dental Council), this procedure is illegal if done by anyone other than a certified dentist.

Clinics will use materials like Chlorine Dioxide, which is highly acidic and does not belong on teeth and can damage tooth enamel. Also clinics that illegally do the teeth whitening practice will use hydrogen peroxide that is above the limit allowed legally to use in whitening teeth. It can burn the lip area and should not be used in the manner that clinics use it as.

What training do the clinics have to administer teeth whitening?

Let’s put it this way: would you rather have a dental professional who has gone to school for many years working on your teeth, or a clinic worker who attended a one-day course?

Not only is this procedure illegal and dangerous, but more clinics are trying to get away with doing the procedure. This is why the GDC has stepped in.

Since the smoking ban has been started, a 12% increase in teeth-whitening has occurred, meaning that what beauty salons do to keep clients coming in is slashing down prices.

The issue is that employing beauty ‘therapists’ who are trained only 1-3 days at most to apply harmful chemicals that can cause extensive damage to a client’s mouth.

For your attention

An incident that should be brought up is a demonstration gone wrong when Ben Nahab conducted illegal dental practice when he burned a dental nurse’s gum while displaying a whitening product. He made the false claim of being a dentist in the UK and registered to work. Now there are 6 clinics in London of the 70 that are currently being investigated for false claims.

The benefits of having a dental expert do this for you is understated, but through this article and what can happen if you don’t hire a professional, hopefully you now understand how important it is to have a professional whiten your teeth.

Otherwise, you could suffer harmful injuries that could be detrimental to your oral health. Be sure to get referrals for any dental professional you hire for the job.

The information in this article was collated by Jem. He is freelance writer concerned with people’s oral and overall health issues and habits. He has a particular soft spot for people falling victim to scams in cosmetic dentistry and other health sectors. You can follow Jem on Twitter at @writerjem to learn more.