Laura long to learn: In my home country Argentina they sell Blanc Dient, to whiten your teeth. Every 100 ml contains 10 grams of Carbamide peroxide. It comes with a brush, you dry your teeth, brush it on your teeth, let it dry for 30 seconds. You have to do that every day for 2 weeks. Does this really work?
The Left Brain responds:
Thanks for your question, Laura. We’re not familiar with Blanc Dient but carbamide peroxide is a well known teeth whitening ingredient and has been used in the US since 1989.
Chemical tooth whiteners
You can think of carbamide peroxide as a stabilized form of hydrogen peroxide, a common household antiseptic. (It’s actually a combination of hydrogen peroxide and urea.) When hydrogen peroxide breaks down it releases oxygen, which reacts with the stained material on your tooth’s enamel. Essentially the peroxide bleaches the enamel and that’s what makes teeth look whiter.
Hydrogen peroxide releases oxygen very quickly, which is a problem for two reasons: it can be difficult to formulate with and high levels can have a damaging effect on soft gum tissue. One way around these problems is to use carbamide peroxide because it breaks down much slower (it releases about 50% of its hydrogen peroxide in the first two to four hours and then the remainder over the next two to six hours.) This slower release process provides a more gradual whitening effect without damaging gums.
Does Blanc Dient work?
While the product does contain a high level of an effective ingredient, carbamide peroxide usually must be left on the teeth for an extended period of time, even up to two hours, to be effective. 30 seconds is probably not enough time to provide significant whitening. That doesn’t mean it won’t work at all (remember, even a “regular” toothpaste can have a mild whitening effect just from reducing surface stains) but there may be more effective products that you could use, like Crest White Strips. You can learn more about teeth whiteners from the American Dental Association.
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It’s so hard to find a good whitening products that aren’t dangerous. I used Crest white strips for a long time with some success. I’d have to say my absolute favorite is Dr Collins bleaching gel and All White toothpaste though. I hadn’t heard of this brand before, but I found it on dentist.net and the products are much more effective than on others.
Cassandra,
I also use Dr Collins line!!! It’s my biggest beauty secret; all my friends use all that mainstream junk and I constantly get compliments on my sparkling smile because i use his “all white” toothpaste and bleaching kits : ). I have sensitive teeth so the antisensitivity gel is also great.
Thank you for this great post!