SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT

Having mastered DIY manis and fringe trimming during lockdown, we turned our attention to home teeth whitening and asked the experts at the GHI and their panel of testers for their top performers.

Billion Dollar Smile USB

Teeth Whitening Kit, £59.99 (superdrug.com), scored highest in the kits and strips category with 76/100. It uses a mouthpiece and gel with an LED, which testers found easy to use, and results showed 60% of testers had whiter teeth after two months. As for toothpastes, the winner was Pearl Drops Strong Polished White,

£6.99, scoring 79/100. It performed well in our lab tests, which found 80% of testers had whiter teeth after eight weeks. Many also felt the toothpaste helped prevent a build-up of stains from drinks such as coffee and red wine. Testers didn’t report tooth or gum sensitivity after using either product.

HOW WE TESTED Kits and strips: 78 testers had pictures taken at our lab with our VISIA image analysis machine before and after using products for two weeks. Using a whiteness scale, we were able to determine any difference in shade before and after. Testers assessed how easy products were to use, their effectiveness and whether there was any sensitivity. Toothpaste: 278 testers used 14 brands of whitening toothpastes for an eight-week period. They assessed products for their whitening effects, stain prevention and whether there was any sensitivity. In our lab, we used the VISIA machine to analyse how the colour of the teeth of the testers changed after eight weeks of using each toothpaste.