For National Gum Care Month, One Click Smile Urges Safety While Whitening Teeth

September is National Gum Care Month, which raises awareness of gum disease symptoms and prevention strategies, but One Click Smile is highlighting another gum risk: the possibility of burns from certain teeth whitening procedures and products.

One Click Smiles was started by Tanaz Warden, a dental hygienist who saw the need for affordable, high quality teeth whitening kits. Dentists could perform the procedure, but the price tag was often prohibitively high. On the other hand, at-home kits were more cost-effective but didn’t always work well. To fill this need, she developed a line of home teeth whitening kits that are highly effective and budget-friendly.

The issue of gum burns made headlines at the end of 2019 when a woman in Ireland went to a salon for a professional teeth whitening service and ended up with severely burned gums that her doctor suspected would require a surgical gum graft to repair.

While these burns are not common, they are a real risk, and troubling tales of gum injuries from teeth whitening procedures manage to make headlines every few years.

According to the American Dental Association, whitening toothpastes tend to be the least risky because they don’t contain bleaching agents; however, they may not be able to produce the dramatic results of in-office procedures or at-home kits.

In-office teeth whitening is the most risky because the lightening solutions contain up to 35% hydrogen peroxide. While at-home kits don’t contain these high concentrations of bleach, they can cause burns due to ill-fitting trays that expose too much of the gum tissue to the whitening agent.

Tanaz warned people to carefully consider the credentials of professionals applying in-office treatments as this is where the most severe damage can happen. For at-home whitening kits, Tanaz urged users to consider the hydrogen peroxide quantities.

“Our products use 6% hydrogen peroxide, which we believe is the sweet spot,” said Tanaz. “Anything more could be dangerous for at-home administration, but anything less may not have the needed potency to lighten teeth significantly.”

Tanaz also said to consider the application mechanism. “Some companies are having users start with the application tray, but this can lead to too much of the bleach solution creeping up onto the gums,” said Tanaz. “We prefer a teeth whitening pen that ensures precise application of the whitening gel on the teeth only.”

Tanaz urged patients to seek out FDA-approved teeth whitening solutions that are made in the U.S.A.

“Many companies are sourcing their kits from China where the health and quality standards do not measure up to U.S. requirements,” said Tanaz. “The discomfort and damage that can result from teeth whitening procedures gone wrong can be very jarring to people and affect their quality of life for months, or even years in the most severe cases.”

To learn more about One Click Smile and their safety standards for their popular teeth whitening kits, visit www.OneClickSmiles.com.

About One Click Smile

One Click Smile specializes in teeth whitening. Their amazing teeth whitening system is proven to get results, fast. And it does it at an achievable, customer-friendly price.