Teeth Whitening Safe?

SarahB0427 · April 2012

Does anyone know if it is safe to use at home teeth whitener when you are pregnant?

PolishWonder · April 2012

I just read on a few articles that not enough studies have been done to prove whether teeth whitening is safe or not during pregnancy.

Personally, I'd wait until 2nd trimester. First tri is so important to develop and such that I'm more of a worry wart and don't color my hair until 2nd tri.

mopsie · April 2012

There are no studies that show that bleaching your teeth is safe while pregnant... but that's mostly because it's illegal to test the safety of bleach on pregnant women. So technically it hasn't been shown to be unsafe, either.

It's safer to do an in-office treatment where the bleach is put directly on your teeth while everything else (lips, tongue, etc) are covered, and the bleach is then completely suctioned off without getting swallowed. This is in contrast to something at home, like Crest WhiteStrips or trays with gel - with the at-home treatment, you end up swallowing some of the bleach.

Personally I think you're better off waiting until after the baby is born (and even then, the jury is out on whether it's safe to bleach while breastfeeding). But if you absolutely HAD to whiten your teeth, I'd spend a little more and do the in-office treatment, making sure you don't ingest any of the bleach.

ToiKenne · April 2012

I wouldn't and I love Crest white strips. But I also knew my cycles really well so I'd only use them during the first 1/2 of my cycle.

bangos13 · April 2012

mopsie:
There are no studies that show that bleaching your teeth is safe while pregnant... but that's mostly because it's illegal to test the safety of bleach on pregnant women. So technically it hasn't been shown to be unsafe, either.
It's safer to do an in-office treatment where the bleach is put directly on your teeth while everything else (lips, tongue, etc) are covered, and the bleach is then completely suctioned off without getting swallowed. This is in contrast to something at home, like Crest WhiteStrips or trays with gel - with the at-home treatment, you end up swallowing some of the bleach.
Personally I think you're better off waiting until after the baby is born (and even then, the jury is out on whether it's safe to bleach while breastfeeding). But if you absolutely HAD to whiten your teeth, I'd spend a little more and do the in-office treatment, making sure you don't ingest any of the bleach.

While I completely agree with you on the fact that in-office whitening would be safer than at home whitening, there is still a chance that a small amount of bleach could be ingested by the patient during the whitening. None of the dental offices that I have worked in could prevent it 100% (between them swallowing the material, or the material being absorbed into the surrounding tissue).

For this reason, I would not whiten while pregnant.

SarahB0427 · April 2012

Kirbus:
One of the girls on here is a dentist - I just sent her a fb message telling her that her expertise was needed. Hopefully she sees it soon!

SarahB0427 · April 2012

Kirbus:
One of the girls on here is a dentist - I just sent her a fb message telling her that her expertise was needed. Hopefully she sees it soon!

You are sweet thank you!

mopsie · April 2012

bangos13:
mopsie:
There are no studies that show that bleaching your teeth is safe while pregnant... but that's mostly because it's illegal to test the safety of bleach on pregnant women. So technically it hasn't been shown to be unsafe, either.
It's safer to do an in-office treatment where the bleach is put directly on your teeth while everything else (lips, tongue, etc) are covered, and the bleach is then completely suctioned off without getting swallowed. This is in contrast to something at home, like Crest WhiteStrips or trays with gel - with the at-home treatment, you end up swallowing some of the bleach.
Personally I think you're better off waiting until after the baby is born (and even then, the jury is out on whether it's safe to bleach while breastfeeding). But if you absolutely HAD to whiten your teeth, I'd spend a little more and do the in-office treatment, making sure you don't ingest any of the bleach.
While I completely agree with you on the fact that in-office whitening would be safer than at home whitening, there is still a chance that a small amount of bleach could be ingested by the patient during the whitening. None of the dental offices that I have worked in could prevent it 100% (between them swallowing the material, or the material being absorbed into the surrounding tissue).
For this reason, I would not whiten while pregnant.

I still wouldn't whiten while pregnant, but there are definitely ways to avoid it getting swallowed and/or absorbed into the surrounding tissue. The bleach is so strong, you'd know right away if it came into contact with any tissue, so that's easily avoidable. Same with swallowing it - using a rubber dam would totally isolate the teeth and make sure bleach does not get swallowed or absorbed by any soft tissue. But that's not to say there may not be some remnant of the bleach on the surface of the teeth even after suctioning it off. So I agree that nothing can be 100% suctioned off, which is why I'd recommend waiting.

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