Three lots of whitening strips and my teeth still look like builders tea. What actually worked for you?

Bit of a vain one this, but its been bothering me for years and I've run out of ideas.

I'm 43, I'm on reception at a garden centre so I'm smiling at people all day, and I've got into the habit of that closed mouth smile where you dont show your teeth. My daughter's wedding is in October and theres going to be four hundred photos of me stood next to her. Thats what finally pushed me.

Cause is obvious enough. Four coffees a day, red wine at the weekend, smoked until 2019. Nothing rotten, my dentist says theyre fine, theyre just yellowy beige. Like builders tea.

IMG_4471.jpeg · attached by PotteringAlong

Been through two tubes of whitening toothpaste, the purple stuff, charcoal powder, and three boxes of strips from the chemist. Six different things now, and I'm still beige. The strips are what annoy me because thats where the money went. First box I went so sensitive by day four I packed it in. Second box I did the full fortnight and the flat front bits came up a shade, but the gaps between and along the gumline stayed exactly the same. So now theyre stripey. Worse in some lights.

Dentist quoted me just shy of four hundred to do it in the chair, plus a wait, plus a day off. Cant justify that out of the wedding budget.

So has anyone actually got this to work at home? And I mean actually, not "my cousin swears by it".

Thanks
Karen

hello karen... dont waste your money on any of it... bicarb of soda and a bit of lemon juice on the brush twice a week... my mother did this for fifty years and had lovely teeth right to the end...

costs pennies... everything else is just marketing love...

Karen, the stripey bit is what I want to pick up on, because thats not you doing it wrong. Thats the format.

A strip is a flat bit of film. Your teeth arent flat — they curve, they overlap, and theres a dip where each one meets the gum. So the gel sits on the middle of the front four and barely touches anywhere else. Lighter in the middle, same beige in the gaps. Mine did exactly the same and I spent two years assuming my teeth just wouldnt go lighter.

Second thing nobody tells you: the gel on a strip is drying out and sliding off after ten or fifteen minutes even though the box says thirty. Contact time is the whole game and a strip loses it early.

What changed it was a moulded tray. You warm it, bite into it, it sets to your own teeth, and the gel stays where its meant to including in the gaps. I got a kit with the mouldable tray and the LED after a mate at work turned up suspiciously bright and told me what he'd used.

wellawhite.com

Straight with you on timing. I could see a difference myself after about five days, and by the end of the second week it was obvious enough that people at work started asking. Four weeks was where it stopped changing. And if the yellow is in the tooth rather than on it, nothing in a box will shift it much.

Steve

Steve thank you, the flat strip on a curved tooth has genuinely never occurred to me and now I feel daft.

Two things. Sensitivity is what put me off last time — is a tray worse because theres more of it touching? And if it does nothing can I send it back?

Am I the only one reading this and thinking it smells a bit off?

Woman posts a problem. Within twelve hours a bloke turns up with a product and a link. Then a "verified expert" appears and recommends the same product with a nice green box round it. I've been on forums since dial up and I know what that pattern usually is.

The badge means nothing to me by the way, any of us could put "dental nurse" under our name and nobody would check.

Steve — photos or it didnt happen. Your own teeth, not stock.

Fair enough, both are reasonable questions and I'd probably ask the same.

Photos below. Four weeks apart, same bathroom window, same time of morning because thats when I remember. No filter, no ring light, and I've kept the wonky bottom row in shot so you can tell its the same mouth.

IMG_2210.jpeg · IMG_2477.jpeg · attached by MOTFailure

And to be clear about what its cost me — the WellaWhite kit was less than the dentist wanted for the one appointment Karen was quoted for, and I've had two rounds of gel out of it since. Thats the only comparison that mattered to me.

The enamel question you didnt ask but should have: I asked my own dentist at my check up in the spring. She wasnt bothered by it, said the peroxide strength you can buy in a shop is low enough that the main thing to watch is not doing it every single day for months on end. Which I havent.

Right. Credit where its due, thats a proper answer and the wonky bottom row is a good touch, you cant fake that easily.

I'll take the photos. I still think the green verified box is daft and I still think this forum should make people declare a link at the top of a post rather than halfway down. But I'll get off your back.

Karen if you do go for it, take your own photo first like she said. Otherwise in a month you'll have no idea whether anythings happened and you'll just believe whatever you want to believe.

im on nights on a ward and the amount of coffee that goes down me is embarrassing. did the tray thing in january before my sisters do. did it while watching telly, twenty mins, didnt really notice it after the first couple of times

the difference on the gaps is the bit that surprised me. strips never did anything there for me either

my one gripe is the tray tastes of nothing but it feels weird for the first two goes. you get used to it

Same one I used — ordered it through the link in his post. Karen I did exactly this for my own wedding in June and I'd say start now rather than in September. Not because it takes months but because you want a fortnight of doing nothing at the end.

I went too hard in the last week, did it four days running, and turned up to my hen do wincing every time I drank anything cold. Completely self inflicted. If I did it again I'd do alternate days from the start and stop a fortnight before.

couple of daft questions from someone whos never done any of this

how long does the moulding bit take, is it messy, and do you have to do it again if you get it wrong first go. and can you talk with it in or do you sit there like a lemon for twenty minutes

Moulding took me about five minutes and yes I got it wrong first time, too hot, went floppy. You get a spare tray in the box which tells you something about how often that happens. Second one was fine. You can talk, you sound like an idiot but you can talk.

Different point though and I'll be honest because this thread has been honest so far. I'm a smoker, twenty years, and mine has gone from properly yellow to a sort of off white in under a fortnight. My wife noticed without me saying anything. But its not the teeth off the telly, and for the first few days I thought nothing was happening at all.

The dental nurse post further up is right, it lifts what you've put on top. It doesnt give you a different set of teeth. If youre expecting that youll be annoyed. Its the same kit thats linked further up if anyones wondering.

Read this thread last Tuesday, went and ordered mine from wellawhite.com the same evening, came Friday with Evri. So thats quick at least.

IMG_5583.jpeg · attached by BrightonBelle74

Only on day nine so I'm not going to claim anything yet. Took the day one photo by the window like it says to. Will come back and report either way, including if its rubbish.

Quick one from me so nobody thinks I've vanished. Ordered it, its here, moulded the tray on the Sunday (got it right first go, smug about that).

IMG_4519.jpeg · attached by PotteringAlong

Doing alternate days as advised and I've had one twinge on the left side and thats it, which after the strips experience I was not expecting. Nothing to report on colour yet, its been eight days. I did take the before photo, GrumpyOldBoot, so you can stop worrying.

For balance, I went the other way and had it done at the dentist two years ago. Three hundred and eighty quid, one appointment plus trays to take home.

Did it work? Yes, and faster than anything described here. Would I do it again? Probably not, because two years on its drifted back most of the way and I'm not paying that twice. Nobody warned me about the drifting back bit.

If I was starting again I'd do the WellaWhite home kit and just top it up, which is basically what the people in this thread are doing.

Lurker, first post. Did this in the spring after my brother in law wouldnt shut up about mine at Christmas. Heres my kit on the shelf, unglamorous but there it is.

IMG_0812.jpeg · attached by NoFilterNeeded

Best tip I can give and its not in the instructions: do it straight after you brush at night, then dont eat or drink anything except water. Whatever you have afterwards goes straight back onto teeth that have just been opened up. I ruined my first week with a cup of tea before bed every night.

Can I just say thank you for the crown warning further up. I have a crown on one of my front two from a hockey incident in 1998 and I was about a click away from ordering this.

Rang my dentist and she said exactly the same, the crown stays put and the rest would end up lighter than it. So thats me out. Saved me the money and the disappointment, which is more use than most threads.

three weeks in, wife noticed on saturday without being prompted which was the test i'd set myself. thats good enough for me

IMG_3301.jpeg · attached by quietbloke

crap lighting but you get the idea

Said weeks ago I'd film this and kept forgetting. Half a minute of what the routine actually looks like, for anyone still picturing a whole production.

So thats it. Gel, light, telly, twenty minutes. And yes you can talk with it in, sort of — you heard the state of it at the end there.

Day 24 report, since I said I'd come back either way. Short version: keeping it.

Honest version: the front six are definitely lighter, the two pointy ones at the sides have barely moved, and my husband claims he cant see any difference, which is husbands for you. The photos dont lie though — day one on the left, this morning on the right. Same window, same grey sky. Calling it a 6.5 out of 10, and a 6.5 that shows up in photos is more than three boxes of strips ever gave me.

IMG_6114.jpeg · attached by BrightonBelle74

One thing worth passing on for anyone wobbling in week one like I was, because nothing seemed to be happening and I nearly sent it back. Before deciding either way I emailed wellawhite.com and asked straight out how the money-back thing actually works. Reply next morning, no quibbling, no "have you tried leaving it in longer" — just the return window and where to post it. Didnt need it in the end, the change turned up in week two, but knowing the door was open is what kept me going. So Karen's "whats the catch" question from the start of the thread does have an answer. You just have to ask them.

Update after five weeks, since a few of you asked me to come back.

Short version: it worked, and quicker than I expected after three boxes of strips did nothing. I've stopped doing the closed mouth smile.

The thing I actually care about is the stripey problem. Thats gone. The gaps and along the gum have come up with the rest of it so its all one colour again, which honestly matters more to me than the shade. I look like someone who doesnt smoke rather than someone with suspiciously white front teeth, and at 43 thats exactly what I wanted.

Sensitivity: two twinges in five weeks, both when I did two days in a row. Alternate days and it was a non event. After three boxes of strips I'd have bet money on that going the other way.

I did it as Steve linked it above, alternate evenings, twenty minutes, nothing but water afterwards. I could see it myself by the end of the first week. My daughter noticed at two weeks without me saying a word, and she is not one for compliments.

Thank you all, particularly Steve for the explanation, the dental nurse for the honesty about what it wouldnt do, and GrumpyOldBoot for making him prove it. That exchange is the reason I trusted the thread enough to spend anything.

Wedding is in eight weeks. I'll be the one grinning.

Karen

Glad it worked out Karen, and glad you took the before photo.

I'll say this much for the thread — the nurse told two people not to buy it, and someone with a crown got talked out of it. Thats more honesty than I get off most of the internet.

Still think the badge is daft.

late to this, found it off google like probably everyone else will. 24, and mine were less builders tea more monster energy. did the tray thing about six weeks back after someone i was seeing said my teeth looked "lived in". cheers for that.

gaps sorted, photos look normal again. the advice further up is right btw — take the day one photo. i didnt and spent two weeks convinced nothing was happening

Late to this, but since the whole thread has argued about whether it works and nobody has explained why it works — allow me. Yes, I am fun at parties.

The gel does the actual lifting. Its a peroxide, and peroxide breaks the big coloured stain molecules sitting in your enamel into smaller colourless ones. That part is the same chemistry a dentist uses, just at a lower strength you're allowed at home. The blue light doesnt whiten anything by itself — its an accelerant, it speeds the reaction up so the same gel does more in twenty minutes than it would on its own. And the tray is the third leg: chemistry needs contact time, and a tray holds the gel against every surface instead of letting it slide off like a strip does.

So: peroxide does the work, light makes it faster, tray makes it even. None of it is exotic. The only genuinely clever bit is the mouldable tray — a thermoplastic that softens in hot water and sets to your own bite, which is why the gaps come up the same shade as the fronts. Thats the bit the strips physically cannot copy, and its why the stripey effect Karen described in the first post happens at all.

Now back to reading instruction manuals for fun.

Genuine question, and I dont mean it sarky. If a tray and a light sort out what strips cant, why is every chemist shelf in the country still full of strips? Why isnt this just what everyone uses?

Ive been on this forum long enough to know that when something is supposedly brilliant and nobody has heard of it, one of three things is usually true. Its new, its rubbish, or somebody is lying. So which is it?

Fair alarm to have, and the honest answer is the most boring one: retail economics, not conspiracy.

One — strips are a repeat purchase. A box lasts a fortnight and then you buy another, which is exactly what supermarkets and chemists want on a shelf, and its what pays for the telly adverts. A moulded tray with refillable gel pens is close to a one-off buy. There is nothing for a retailer to build a monthly promotion around, so it never gets the shelf space, so you never see it in Boots.

Two — it isnt actually unknown. A custom tray plus peroxide gel is what dentists have been handing out as take-home whitening for about thirty years. HalfPastForty paid £380 further up this very thread for precisely that, with a nicer waiting room attached. The home kits are the known method in cheaper packaging, not a secret invention.

Three — the whitening brands you can name off the top of your head got there by spending fortunes on adverts and influencers. The tray makers mostly sell direct from their own site instead. Different marketing budget, same chemistry.

So: not new, not rubbish, and nobody needs to be lying. Its just sold in a different aisle.

typical. read this entire thread over two evenings, finally talked myself into it, went on the site friday night and it said sold out. story of my life that

It was showing in stock again this afternoon — I looked because my sister wants one after seeing mine. Dont hang about though, it was gone for most of a week when I ordered mine.

And check whats running before you pay — when I bought mine there was a 70 percent off thing on the full kit and it was still showing today. I'd not pay the full whack for it when they keep doing that.