Why you need to be wary of home tooth whitening kits

21 Aug 2020 By Olivia Howes

The pursuit of a sparkling smile is a popular one in today’s Insta-perfect world. Attracted by promises of brighter, whiter teeth, consumers are buying a dazzling array of whitening powders, paints, gels, pens, strips and kits to use at home.

According to a recent Mintel report, 52% of people surveyed were using at-home teeth-whitening kits at least once a day.

They’re usually much cheaper than dentist-administered professional whitening, but are home whitening kits really effective – and are they safe for your teeth?

Read the full story at Which.co.uk

Comments (0)

Please verify your action

Comment (maximum 3500 characters) (required)

Add a picture

Notify me when someone makes a comment

First name (required)

Last name (required)

Email (required)

Which country do you live in?

Postcode (required)

Address line 1

Address line 2

Town or city

Keeping In Touch

We'd love to keep you posted with our news, activities and how you can help in other ways. We'll never sell or swap your details with anybody else. You are free to change your mind at anytime. Please indicate how you would like to hear from us by using the tick boxes below

Via email

Via telephone

Via SMS

Via post

Which country do you live in?

Postcode (required)

Address line 1

Address line 2

Town or city

Your Privacy

We will always store your personal details securely. We'll use them to provide the service that you have requested, and communicate with you in the way(s) that you have agreed to. Your data may also be used for analysis purposes, to help us provide the best service possible. For full details see our Privacy Policy

By submitting this form you are agreeing to our terms and conditions

1. Introduction

1.1 These terms and conditions shall govern your use of our website.

1.2 By using our website, you accept these terms and conditions in full; accordingly, if you disagree with these terms and conditions or any part of these terms and conditions, you must not use our website.

1.3 If you register with our website, submit any material to our website or use any of our website services, we will ask you to expressly agree to these terms and conditions.

1.4 Our website uses cookies; by using our website or agreeing to these terms and conditions, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of our privacy and cookies policy.

2. Credit

2.1 This document was created using a template from SEQ Legal (http://www.seqlegal.com).

3. Copyright notice

3.1 Copyright (c) 1971 Oral Health Foundation.

3.2 Subject to the express provisions of these terms and conditions:

(a) we, together with our licensors, own and control all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in our website and the material on our website; and

(b) all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in our website and the material on our website are reserved.

4. Licence to use website
4.1 You may:

(a) view pages from our website in a web browser;

(b) download pages from our website for caching in a web browser;

(c) print pages from our website;

(d) Stream audio and video files from our website; and

(e) Use our website services by means of a web browser, subject to the other provisions of these terms and conditions.

4.2 Except as expressly permitted by Section 4.1 or the other provisions of these terms and conditions, you must not download any material from our website or save any such material to your computer.

4.3 You may only use our website for your own personal and business purposes, and you must not use our website for any other purposes.

4.4 Except as expressly permitted by these terms and conditions, you must not edit or otherwise modify any material on our website.

4.5 Unless you own or control the relevant rights in the material, you must not:

(a) republish material from our website (including republication on another website);

(b) sell, rent or sub-license material from our website;

(c) show any material from our website in public;

(d) exploit material from our website for a commercial purpose; or

(e) redistribute material from our website.

4.6 Notwithstanding Section 4.5, you may redistribute our news, blogs, audio, video, newsletter in print and electronic form to any person.

4.7 We reserve the right to restrict access to areas of our website, or indeed our whole website, at our discretion; you must not circumvent or bypass, or attempt to circumvent or bypass, any access restriction measures on our website.

5. Acceptable use
5.1 You must not:

(a) use our website in any way or take any action that causes, or may cause, damage to the website or impairment of the performance, availability or accessibility of the website;

(b) use our website in any way that is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful, or in connection with any unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful purpose or activity;

(c) use our website to copy, store, host, transmit, send, use, publish or distribute any material which consists of (or is linked to) any spyware, computer virus, Trojan horse, worm, keystroke logger, rootkit or other malicious computer software;

(d) Conduct any systematic or automated data collection activities (including without limitation scraping, data mining, data extraction and data harvesting) on or in relation to our website without our express written consent;

(e) Access or otherwise interact with our website using any robot, spider or other automated means, except for the purpose of search engine indexing;

(f) Violate the directives set out in the robots.txt file for our website; or

(g) Use data collected from our website for any direct marketing activity (including without limitation email marketing, SMS marketing, telemarketing and direct mailing).

5.2 You must not use data collected from our website to contact individuals, companies or other persons or entities.

5.3 You must ensure that all the information you supply to us through our website, or in relation to our website, is true, accurate, current, complete and non-misleading.

6. Registration and accounts
6.1 You may register for an account with our website by completing and submitting the account registration form on our website, and clicking on the verification link in the email that the website will send to you.

6.2 You must not allow any other person to use your account to access the website.

6.3 You must notify us in writing immediately if you become aware of any unauthorised use of your account.

6.4 You must not use any other person's account to access the website, unless you have that person's express permission to do so.

7. User login details
7.1 If you register for an account with our website, or you will be asked to choose a user ID and password.

7.2 Your user ID must not be liable to mislead and must comply with the content rules set out in Section 10; you must not use your account or user ID for or in connection with the impersonation of any person.

7.3 You must keep your password confidential.

7.4 You must notify us in writing immediately if you become aware of any disclosure of your password.

7.5 You are responsible for any activity on our website arising out of any failure to keep your password confidential, and may be held liable for any losses arising out of such a failure.

8. Cancellation and suspension of account
8.1 We may:

(a) suspend your account;

(b) cancel your account; and/or

(c) edit your account details, at any time in our sole discretion without notice or explanation.

8.2 You may cancel your account on our website using your account control panel on the website.

9. Your content: licence
9.1 In these terms and conditions, "your content" means all works and materials (including without limitation text, graphics, images, audio material, video material, audio-visual material, scripts, software and files) that you submit to us or our website for storage or publication on, processing by, or transmission via, our website.

9.2 You grant to us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, store, adapt, publish, translate and distribute your content in any existing or future media.

9.3 You grant to us the right to sub-license the rights licensed under Section 9.2.

9.4 You grant to us the right to bring an action for infringement of the rights licensed under Section 9.2.

9.5 You hereby waive all your moral rights in your content to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law; and you warrant and represent that all other moral rights in your content have been waived to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

9.6 You may edit your content to the extent permitted using the editing functionality made available on our website.

9.7 Without prejudice to our other rights under these terms and conditions, if you breach any provision of these terms and conditions in any way, or if we reasonably suspect that you have breached these terms and conditions in any way, we may delete, unpublish or edit any or all of your content.

10. Your content: rules
10.1 You warrant and represent that your content will comply with these terms and conditions.

10.2 Your content must not be illegal or unlawful, must not infringe any person's legal rights, and must not be capable of giving rise to legal action against any person (in each case in any jurisdiction and under any applicable law).

10.3 Your content, and the use of your content by us in accordance with these terms and conditions, must not:

(a) be libellous or maliciously false;

(b) be obscene or indecent;

(c) infringe any copyright, moral right, database right, trade mark right, design right, right in passing off, or other intellectual property right;

(d) infringe any right of confidence, right of privacy or right under data protection legislation;

(e) constitute negligent advice or contain any negligent statement;

(f) constitute an incitement to commit a crime, instructions for the commission of a crime or the promotion of criminal activity;

(g) be in contempt of any court, or in breach of any court order;

(h) be in breach of racial or religious hatred or discrimination legislation;

(i) be blasphemous;

(j) be in breach of official secrets legislation;

(k) be in breach of any contractual obligation owed to any person;

(l) depict violence in an explicit, graphic or gratuitous manner;

(m) be pornographic, lewd, suggestive or sexually explicit;

(n) be untrue, false, inaccurate or misleading;

(o) consist of or contain any instructions, advice or other information which may be acted upon and could, if acted upon, cause illness, injury or death, or any other loss or damage;

(p) constitute spam;

(q) be offensive, deceptive, fraudulent, threatening, abusive, harassing, anti-social, menacing, hateful, discriminatory or inflammatory; or

(r) cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to any person.

11. Limited warranties
11.1 We do not warrant or represent:

(a) the completeness or accuracy of the information published on our website;

(b) that the material on the website is up to date; or

(c) that the website or any service on the website will remain available.

11.2 We reserve the right to discontinue or alter any or all of our website services, and to stop publishing our website, at any time in our sole discretion without notice or explanation; and save to the extent expressly provided otherwise in these terms and conditions, you will not be entitled to any compensation or other payment upon the discontinuance or alteration of any website services, or if we stop publishing the website.

11.3 To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law and subject to Section 12.1, we exclude all representations and warranties relating to the subject matter of these terms and conditions, our website and the use of our website.

12. Limitations and exclusions of liability
12.1 Nothing in these terms and conditions will:

(a) limit or exclude any liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence;

(b) limit or exclude any liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;

(c) limit any liabilities in any way that is not permitted under applicable law; or

(d) exclude any liabilities that may not be excluded under applicable law.

12.2 The limitations and exclusions of liability set out in this Section 12 and elsewhere in these terms and conditions:

(a) are subject to Section 12.1; and

(b) govern all liabilities arising under these terms and conditions or relating to the subject matter of these terms and conditions, including liabilities arising in contract, in tort (including negligence) and for breach of statutory duty, except to the extent expressly provided otherwise in these terms and conditions.

12.3 To the extent that our website and the information and services on our website are provided free of charge, we will not be liable for any loss or damage of any nature.

12.4 We will not be liable to you in respect of any losses arising out of any event or events beyond our reasonable control.

12.5 We will not be liable to you in respect of any business losses, including (without limitation) loss of or damage to profits, income, revenue, use, production, anticipated savings, business, contracts, commercial opportunities or goodwill.

12.6 We will not be liable to you in respect of any loss or corruption of any data, database or software.

12.7 We will not be liable to you in respect of any special, indirect or consequential loss or damage.

12.8 You accept that we have an interest in limiting the personal liability of our officers and employees and, having regard to that interest, you acknowledge that we are a limited liability entity; you agree that you will not bring any claim personally against our officers or employees in respect of any losses you suffer in connection with the website or these terms and conditions (this will not, of course, limit or exclude the liability of the limited liability entity itself for the acts and omissions of our officers and employees).

13. Breaches of these terms and conditions
13.1 Without prejudice to our other rights under these terms and conditions, if you breach these terms and conditions in any way, or if we reasonably suspect that you have breached these terms and conditions in any way, we may:

(a) send you one or more formal warnings;

(b) temporarily suspend your access to our website;

(c) permanently prohibit you from accessing our website;

(d) block computers using your IP address from accessing our website;

(e) contact any or all of your internet service providers and request that they block your access to our website;

(f) commence legal action against you, whether for breach of contract or otherwise; and/or

(g) suspend or delete your account on our website.

13.2 Where we suspend or prohibit or block your access to our website or a part of our website, you must not take any action to circumvent such suspension or prohibition or blocking (including without limitation creating and/or using a different account).

14. Variation
14.1 We may revise these terms and conditions from time to time.

14.2 The revised terms and conditions shall apply to the use of our website from the date of publication of the revised terms and conditions on the website, and you hereby waive any right you may otherwise have to be notified of, or to consent to, revisions of these terms and conditions.] OR [We will give you written notice of any revision of these terms and conditions, and the revised terms and conditions will apply to the use of our website from the date that we give you such notice; if you do not agree to the revised terms and conditions, you must stop using our website.

14.3 If you have given your express agreement to these terms and conditions, we will ask for your express agreement to any revision of these terms and conditions; and if you do not give your express agreement to the revised terms and conditions within such period as we may specify, we will disable or delete your account on the website, and you must stop using the website.

15. Assignment
15.1 You hereby agree that we may assign, transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with our rights and/or obligations under these terms and conditions.

15.2 You may not without our prior written consent assign, transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with any of your rights and/or obligations under these terms and conditions.

16. Severability
16.1 If a provision of these terms and conditions is determined by any court or other competent authority to be unlawful and/or unenforceable, the other provisions will continue in effect.

16.2 If any unlawful and/or unenforceable provision of these terms and conditions would be lawful or enforceable if part of it were deleted, that part will be deemed to be deleted, and the rest of the provision will continue in effect.

17. Third party rights
17.1 A contract under these terms and conditions is for our benefit and your benefit, and is not intended to benefit or be enforceable by any third party.

17.2 The exercise of the parties' rights under a contract under these terms and conditions is not subject to the consent of any third party.

18. Entire agreement
18.1 Subject to Section 12.1, these terms and conditions, together with our privacy and cookies policy, shall constitute the entire agreement between you and us in relation to your use of our website and shall supersede all previous agreements between you and us in relation to your use of our website.

19. Law and jurisdiction
19.1 These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law.

19.2 Any disputes relating to these terms and conditions shall be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.

20. Statutory and regulatory disclosures
20.1 We are registered in Companies House and the Charity Commission; you can find the online version of the register at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house and https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/charity-commission. Our company registration number is 1027338 and our charity number is 263198.

20.2 We are subject to the Charity Commission, which is supervised by the British Government.

20.3 We are registered as Oral Health Foundation with Charity Commission in the United Kingdom and are subject to rules, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/charity-commission.

20.4 Our VAT number is 366046156.

21. Our details
21.1 This website is owned and operated by Oral Health Foundation.

21.2 We are registered in England and Wales under registration number 1027338, and our registered office is at Smile House, 2 East Union Street, Rugby, Warwickshire, CV22 6AJ.

21.3 You can contact us:

(a) by post, using the postal address given above;

(b) using our website contact form;

(c) by telephone, on the contact number published on our website from time to time; or

(d) by email, using the email address published on our website from time to time.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Latest

No Smoking Day: A breath of fresh air for oral health

13 MAR 2024 - No Smoking Day is an annual health awareness day in the UK that encourages smokers to quit.
Understanding the link between mental health, smoking, and oral health

07 MAR 2024 - If you or a loved one is living with a mental illness, it’s important to understand the risks associated with smoking.
HPV Sign away Campaign encourages the uptake of vaccines

4 MAR 2024 - Today is International HPV (human papillomavirus) Awareness Day, the Oracle Cancer Trust is asking parents to sign the Year 8 HPV Vaccine consent forms.
Sugar and obesity: A sweet but dangerous connection

4 MAR 2024 - Today, as we unite to observe World Obesity Day 2024, it’s crucial to shed light on one of the most significant contributors to the global obesity epidemic – sugar.

Belfast-based business owner pleads guilty to advertising tooth whitening products

Owner of the Belfast-based HD Smile Clinic pleads guilty to five illegal tooth whitening charges at Belfast Magistrates Court.
Sunderland-based women fined for illegal tooth whitening

4 MAR 2019 - Lynsey Wilson ordered to pay £9,522 after being found guilty of offering illegal tooth whitening services out of her Sunderland salon.
Woman fined for illegal tooth whitening on punters in Clydebank home

05 DEC 2018 - Brenda McFadyen was fined £1,000 for carrying out the prohibited dentistry under the name Pearly Whites Teeth Whitening from her house in Clydebank.
East Sussex woman prosecuted for illegal tooth whitening

28 NOV 2018 - Hailsham-based Katie Ensell heavily fined for offering illegal tooth whitening treatment through her business, KT's Cosmetics
Wigan woman prosecuted for illegal tooth whitening

16 AUG 2018 - Wigan-based Christine McCarrick handed a heavy fine after pleading guilty to practising illegal tooth whitening.
Newcastle beautician found guilty of illegal tooth whitening

10 AUG 18 - Newcastle-based Leanne Cranston fined after pleading guilty to offering illegal tooth whitening services.
London man ordered to pay more than £15k after illegal tooth whitening conviction is upheld

24 JUL 18 - Jeffery Lehmann handed heavy fine after having his previous conviction for illegal tooth whitening upheld
Derby man ordered to pay over £7k after illegal tooth whitening conviction

20 JUL 18 - Man hit with heavy fine after being found guilty of practising illegal tooth whitening in Derby.
Essex Smiles owner prosecuted for offering illegal tooth whitening in Milton Keynes

09 JUL 18 - Man pleads guilty to offering illegal tooth whitening services in Milton Keynes and is hit with heavy fine.
Birmingham resident prosecuted for illegal tooth whitening

06 JUN 18 - Woman prosecuted after offering illegal tooth whitening services while falsely claiming to be a dental hygienist.

What to do following an extraction

General advice about what to do after having teeth taken out. Includes what precautions you should take and things to avoid.
Mouth ulcers

Usually red or yellow in colour, mouth ulcers are painful sores that can appear inside the mouth and also on the outer lips.
Burning mouth syndrome

Burning Mouth Syndrome can be an extremely uncomfortable condition which can have several potential causes.
Geographic tongue

Geographic tongue is a common condition which can appear on the top and sides of the tongue, and sometimes on the under-surface.
How to spot mouth cancer

How much do you know about the signs and symptoms of mouth cancer? By being Mouthaware you can make a difference in the fight against mouth cancer.
Bridges and partial dentures

These replacement options for missing teeth are often recommended for oral health purposes as well as cosmetic appearance.
What foods and drinks contain acid and why it spells trouble for our oral health

10 JUNE 19 - As part of National Smile Month, the Oral Health Foundation and GSK have come together to discuss the threat acidic foods and drinks pose to our oral health.
Wisdom teeth

The wisdom teeth are the last to appear, right at the back of the mouth, often between 17 and 25 but sometime many years later.
Jaw problems and headaches

If you jaw and teeth are not lined up correctly it will not only affect your bite but could result in severe headaches and jaw pain.
Sugar free chewing gum

Chewing sugar-free gum helps protect your teeth and gums in between meals when it may not be possible to brush with a toothbrush.