Dentalcompare
Clinical Director
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Federal Trade Commission on December 2 unanimously determined that the North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners are not allowed to get in the way of any non-dentist selling, distributing or dispensing whitening products. This means that as much as every dentist feels a distinct cringe at the thought of people getting their teeth whitened in a mall, there is not much you can do about it. The FTC’s specific slap-on-the-wrist came from the fact that the board was telling everyone that it was actually illegal, and then initiating a campaign to threatening malls and business owners from partaking in whitening activities.
The tough thing here is that every dentist knows the difference between what they use, and what the malls use. Very often, however, the patients do not understand the difference. The basic active ingredient in every case is some type of peroxide. The whitening products that get dispensed in a dental office, such as Day White ACP from Philips Oral Care, are formulated and delivered to teeth in a way that we know causes no harm, not only to the teeth, but to the gums. There is a specific set of instructions we can give to patients that insures the best result.
Compare that to the story a friend from out of town had at the mall. Here was her experience:
Step 1: Shove this tray full of goo in your mouth and sit there.
Step 2: Don’t eat for the next five days because your gingiva is missing the top 5 layers of skin.
But did it whiten the teeth? You bet.
So whats a dentist to do? First, don’t lose focus on what we are here for. Our job is oral health, and the cosmetic whitening side of it is a nice bit of icing on the dental practice cake. Second, education can be a powerful thing. Between chatting in person, or even an email blast to your patients of record, you can help them make the right decisions on this and many other issues related to dentistry.