Whitening debate


Stamp it out! H


ow many times have you seen tooth whit- ening offered on your local high street or had a Groupon/daily deal


offering whitening from as little as £49, drop into your email inbox? Have you ever checked the adver- tisement or looked to see who was actually performing the treatment? Chances are it’s a self-styled


whitening technician or bleaching specialist and not a GDC-registered dental professional. Eight years ago, I relocated to


Edinburgh from Northern Ireland and one of the first things I noticed was a clinic advertising tooth whit- ening “from £49”. Their strapline was “Don’t be making the dentists rich!” so it was safe to presume that there were no dental professionals working in those premises. I was rather intrigued and phoned


to enquire about it. I was told that it was the same power whitening system that was used by dentists and that it was ı00 per cent safe and my teeth could be lightened up to 22 shades. I must confess to feeling shocked


that someone with no dental experience was performing power whitening, but even more shocked when the receptionist told me that they had four clinics operating in Scotland, all seeing upwards of 20 patients per day. I picked up the phone and called


the GDC to report illegal practice but was told that whitening was a grey area and they couldn’t do anything about it. As the years went on, more and


more salons were arriving on the high street. You could even have your teeth whitened in the local tanning salon and video rental store...


This made me very concerned


as I’d worked with the chair-side whitening agents and knew how easily they could burn the lips and gums if not applied carefully and if the patient was not kept under close supervision for the duration of the treatment. In my workplace, we were starting


to see the devastating effects from whitening performed by these non- dental technicians. Often, chemical burns resulting in painful lips and gums and sensitivity were the driving factor for patients to present for emergency appointments and there was nothing we could do to help them, other than advising them to wait until the burns healed and giving treatment for the tooth sensitivity. I felt terribly sorry for these


patients and advised them to report the clinic to the GDC and Trading Standards and make sure that their family and friends knew to stay away from them too. I’ve had a Facebook account for


a few years and in the last couple of years there has been an influx of business pages offering tooth whitening from mobile technicians, hairdressers, whitening clinics, many featuring before and after images to help draw in business. I have often shared such images on my wall with a reminder to my friends and family that tooth whit- ening should only be performed by a GDC registered dentist, hygienist or therapist and I’ve always had messages about them, mostly asking why it’s unsafe. At the start of February, a very


close friend liked and shared an offer from a mobile whitening technician. She was offering a free treatment for Valentine’s Day if she could reach 500 likes. I clicked onto


“You could even have your teeth whitened in the local tanning salon and video rental


store” Beverley Carlyle


the page and was shocked by the images I saw there. I was moved to do something immediately to warn people that it was unsafe so I started a Facebook page of my own. I called it ‘Stamp Out Illegal Tooth Whitening’, shared the images in the before and after folder from the whitening technician that was running her Valentine’s deal and a message as to what the images were showing and why it was dangerous. Within three hours, I had over 90 likes and 32 friends had shared my page. The messages started to flood


in. Reports of painful experiences people had received at the hands of such salons and technicians and people asking what could be done to stop it. I gave them links to the GDC website for reporting illegal practice and links to their local Trading Standards. I also asked them to contact their local MP or copy them into the report. I posted a couple more images


that I’d found on other business pages and within 24 hours, I had more than 200 likes and an inbox bursting with messages. I was struggling to keep up with


the page that weekend and, thank- fully, dental professionals had taken it upon themselves to start replying to posts from members of the public and were posting up links to legislation, advising people on how to treat sensitive teeth, etc. I was overwhelmed by the support. After four days, I had to take on


another admin for the page – a dental hygienist who had been answering posts and spending a lot of time advising members on how to report the illegal practice. By the end of the week, I appointed a dental surgeon


Continued » Scottish Dental magazine 21


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