HOUSTON – Whether you use charcoal powder, whitening toothpaste, strips or pay hundreds of dollars at a dentist office, most people want whiter teeth.
The 20 Minute White Smile tooth-whitening device cost consumer expert Amy Davis $19.88 at Walmart.
Davis tested it to see if it really worked. Here is what she found:
Claim: Get your teeth three shades whiter in just 20 minutes.
20 Minute White Smile works with your smartphone. It comes with multiple adapters so you can plug the tray into your phone. The LED Teeth Whitner Accelerator light uses your phone's battery as a power source. It automatically shuts off after 20 minutes so you don't need a separate timer.
Before you begin the treatment, the instructions tell you to swab your lips and gums with one of the enclosed vitamin E swabs. The instructions say that the oil "protects" your lips and gums, but it doesn't say if it's protecting them from the LED light, the whitening gel or both. You squeeze the whitening gel into the tray on the top and bottom. Then insert the tray into your mouth, biting down on the tray so that your teeth fit into it like a retainer. Then you wait. After 20 minutes, the light turns off and you can spit out the gel and rinse.
Before KPRC 2 meteorologist Justin Stapleton's 13-year-old daughter Maya Stapleton tried the 20 Minute White Smile, Justin Stapleton measured the whiteness of her teeth with a shade guide used by dentists. After Maya Stapleton used the device, she and Justin Stapleton believed that her teeth were whitened by one shade; but her teeth were already so white, she didn't have three shades to improve.
Davis tried the 20 Minute White Smile next. Co-workers used the shade guide before and after the treatment. They determined that Davis' teeth were three shades whiter after using the device.
The claim is TRUE.
There are some pros and cons you should consider.
Pros:
1) The device does whiten your teeth.
2) It works in one 20-minute treatment. There is no need to brush daily with special whitening toothpaste.
Cons:
1) The product comes with just two gel whitening syringes and two vitamin E swabs. You can stretch these to get three treatments out of the 20 Minute White Smile. After that, you will either need to buy refills or the tray is useless.
2) The whitening gel tastes pretty awful. You are not supposed to swallow it, but you can taste it after 20 minutes in your mouth.
3) Davis' lips were very dry after the treatment, but it was nothing a little lip balm wouldn't fix.