Do Blue Lights in Whitening Kits Do Anything?

by Bite Glow

 

The use of LED or ‘whitening’ lights for more effective tooth-whitening is not supported by current research. Small, battery powered LED lights offer no additional benefit to the whitening process and are merely a sales gimmick. They are bulky, uncomfortable and make you drool everywhere. Powerful UV lights powered by higher voltages used in the dental office dehydrate teeth, making them initially appear whiter while having a high degree of relapse over 72hrs as the teeth rehydrate with your saliva and fluids.

 no blue light

 

Don't just take our word for it, read the science below!

 

"Light activation offers no benefits for amount of whitening achieved, persistence of the whitening treatment, or avoidance of tooth sensitivity from the whitening treatment."

 

Reference:
Carey, C.M. (2014) ‘Tooth Whitening: What We Now Know’, The journal of evidence-based dental practice, 14 Suppl, pp. 70–76. doi:10.1016/j.jebdp.2014.02.006. 

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4058574/

 

"Another in vitro study designed to evaluate the color stability of bleaching after light activation with either a halogen unit, laser, LED unit; or bleaching without light activation found that all the tested methods achieved good aesthetic results even 3 months after the end of the bleaching. Additionally, the authors found that light activation of the bleaching agent was not beneficial compared to bleaching alone and light activation made no difference in the color stability up to 3 months after bleaching"

 

Reference:
Hahn, P. et al. (2013) ‘Efficacy of tooth bleaching with and without light activation and its effect on the pulp temperature: an in vitro study’, Odontology, 101(1), pp. 67–74. doi:10.1007/s10266-012-0063-4.

Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22395767/

 

"lights have no proven benefit but may heat up the teeth, resulting in many adverse effects. In particular, the heat emitted temporarily dehydrates the teeth, giving the "illusion" of bleaching which quickly disappears"

 

Reference:

Kossatz S, Dalanhol AP, Cunha T, Loguercio A, Reis A. Effect of light activation on tooth sensitivity after in-office bleaching. Oper Dent. juin 2011;36(3):251‑7.

Ontiveros JC, Paravina RD. Color change of vital teeth exposed to bleaching performed with and without supplementary light. J Dent. nov 2009;37(11):840‑7.

Gurgan S, Cakir FY, Yazici E. Different light-activated in-office bleaching systems: a clinical evaluation. Lasers Med Sci. nov 2010;25(6):817‑22.

 

And these expert opinions...

 

The Council of European Dentists

“The CED firmly discourages the use of whitening lamps since current scientific literature do not support the use of lights (please see relevant literature in Annex I). Whitening lamps do not have a real effect on bleaching and may cause many adverse effects”

Reference:

https://cedentists.eu/library/policy.html?filter_id=64 

 

BiteGlow is based on dental science. Read about how BiteGlow works here.

 

Back to Blog