We asked five experts: is whitening bad for teeth?

If you’re anything like me, celebrity smiles and Colgate ads make you feel guilty about your regular consumption of coffee, red wine, tea, and all the other fun things we’re told will stain our teeth.

And the solution seems so easy – a box of whitening strips from the supermarket shelf tells us so. But does whitening teeth also remove some of what keeps them healthy? And might they be more easily stained afterwards?

We asked five experts if whitening is bad for teeth.

Five out of five experts said no…

But they all had a pretty big caveat. It’s safe provided it’s done by a dentist. So for this you’re looking at upwards of a few hundred dollars, rather than just a trip to the supermarket.

Here are their detailed responses:

If you have a “yes or no” health question you’d like posed to Five Experts, email your suggestion to: alexandra.hansen@theconversation.edu.au

Disclosures: Alexander is a Federal Councillor for the Australian Dental Association Inc. and occasionally works clinically within private dental practice. Kelly is employed by CQUniversity to teach in the Bachelor of Oral Health program. Under the supervision of registered dental professionals, students deliver professional tooth whitening procedures at the university clinic. Madhan is a NHMRC Sidney Sax Research Fellow in Public Health and Health Services at the University of Sydney and Kings College London. He is a full time oral health researcher, and is not currently involved in any clinical practice. Rebecca works in paediatric practice that does not offer whitening procedures.