Product Testing

Plus White Whitening Gel ($5)

You don’t need to spend hundreds on teeth whitening with a dentist, or with Dial-a-Smile gimmicks, or famously sensitivity-inducing, hard-to-use strips; instead, Plus White gel is inexpensive, easy to get your hands on, and works for those of us with less than perfect smiles. Heavens – I’m in rare form, I’m pretty sure Plus White was featured as an As Seen on TV item; I never actually saw it on TV myself, but this is one of those things, like the Turbie Twist, that works.

Eons ago, I used Crest Whitestrips. They worked well enough on superficial staining from dark beverages, but when used as directed, they left my teeth (which were not as fussy, then) sensitive; cold things were occasionally intolerable. On top of that, I admittedly have what I snarkily refer to as a, “creatively arranged,” smile (read: my teeth aren’t straight. Most people’s aren’t. I’m not losing sleep over it). Unfortunately, strip-based whitening products (not just Crest’s – Rembrandt has a few, there are some private label ones, etc) aren’t ideal for people whose teeth don’t line up like they’re answering to a drill sargeant; although they can be folded in and pressed to the surface of the tooth, it isn’t as easy as it sounds, and adhesion isn’t as consistent to those uh, “nonconformists,” as is needed. Therefore, my results were uneven and inconsistent.

Before my wedding two summers ago, I revisited Crest; I specifically got the Crest 3D White Luxe Whitestrips ($35+)…but remembering my experience with them, I decided to seek a backup option in the form of Plus White Gel (only $5 at Wal-Mart). I gave Crest a shot and found that it is definitely better than it was, doing better job with my staining and with strip adhesion than their decade-old counterparts, but I still have the issue of incongruity of my teeth.

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