A laboratory comparison of some tooth bleaching systems

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of five commercially available “paint–on” style bleaching products.  Methods:  Tooth sections were produced and stained following the protocol of Sulieman et al (2003).  The test groups were randomly assigned to the testing regimes.  Products were applied following manufacturer's instructions and the experiment run for fourteen days.  The specimens were measured with an industrial colorimeter and the L*, a* and b* values recorded.  Additionally, a Shade Eye^TM NCCTM was used to evaluate the “clinical” shade presentation of the assembled specimens and again the results were recorded.  Measurements were repeated three times.  All measurements were made by a single operator, who was blinded to the product used.  The control group for this experiment was de-ionised water.  The following products were tested: BlanX^TM (Cetraria Islandica extract), Rembrandt ^TM (hydrogen peroxide) Brite-Smile^TM (5.25% hydrogen peroxide) Safe and White^TM (Hydro-carbon-oxo-borate) Simply White^TM (MPPH and hydrogen peroxide)and Smilex (hydrogen peroxide) were tested.  Results: L*, a* and b* values were used to calculate the overall change in lightness of the specimens; DE=√(DL²+Da²+Db²).