Bad news: a lot of the things you love stain your teeth. Coffee, wine, berries — these pigmented foods and drinks really leave a mark. But here’s the good news: with Spotlight whitening strips, you can break up and lift out those stains and enjoy a brighter smile.
But with so many whitening strips on the market today, how can you be sure Spotlight is the best brand for you? In this review, we’ll explain how Spotlight whitening strips compare to other options when it comes to quality, cost, comfort, and more.
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Spotlight Whitening Strips at a Glance
Spotlight Oral Care was founded by cosmetic dentists Drs. Lisa and Vanessa Creaven. In their practice, they noticed a lack of sustainable, clean oral care products that were clinically proven to work. They made it their mission to fill that gap and Spotlight Oral Care was born.
They didn’t settle just for making sustainable and effective products, though. They wanted to meet all the unaddressed needs they saw in their patients. As stated on their website, “One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to your skincare, so why should it when it comes to your oral care? Your mouth and its needs are completely unique!”
Spotlight Whitening Strips are designed to lift out stains without harming the teeth. Just like all Spotlight Oral Care products, they utilize targeted ingredients that are clinically proven to work. Additionally, their whitening strips are BPA-free, gluten-free and cruelty-free — so they’re accessible to people with a wide variety of needs and values.
You can purchase Spotlight Whitening Strips through their website and via other online retailers. You can also find them in person at select Ulta and CVS locations.
Pros & Cons
Spotlight Whitening Strips are a great product that will brighten your smile. But no whitening strip is 100% perfect. Here are their biggest advantages and drawbacks.
Pros of Spotlight Whitening Strips
- They lean natural in their ingredients, only using engineered ones when they feel it is necessary for efficacy.
- The formula is designed to both whiten and strengthen the teeth.
- Thanks to its gentle formula, the company says you can complete a full round of treatment every six months.
- The kit includes gel to reduce gum sensitivity.
Cons of Spotlight Whitening Strips
- They state their packaging is environmentally friendly, but it is much larger than necessary.
- Their hydrogen peroxide concentration is quite low, making their formula less powerful than some competitors.
Should You Get Spotlight Whitening Strips?
Spotlight Whitening Strips strengthen your smile during treatment and reduce sensitivity. If you don’t mind a gentler formula, this could be a solid option.
Effectiveness
If you aren’t seeing a whiter smile in the mirror by the end of treatment, your investment isn’t paying off. And when it comes to effectiveness, Spotlight delivers.
According to most customers, after a full 14-day course, their teeth are significantly brighter, and many see initial results after just one day. Most notably, the strips achieve results using a mixture of clean, natural ingredients and hydrogen peroxide rather than the usual harsh chemicals.
According to Spotlight Oral Care, you should repeat a full course of treatment every six months to maintain your brightest smile, with a five-day course halfway between. Each whitening session lasts 60 minutes, giving the formula plenty of time to open the pores of the teeth and lift out stains.
Spotlight’s formula uses hydrogen peroxide, which is the same ingredient used in many dentist-directed whitening treatments, and which studies have proven effective at various concentrations. However, Spotlight uses much lower concentration than professional treatments: just 0.1%.
In the UK where Spotlight is based, 0.1% is the maximum hydrogen peroxide concentration legally permitted for home whitening kits. Though this strength is considered safe for home use, it’s less potent than the other home whitening products we review.
Affordability
At-home whitening products come close to the results of in-office treatments, but can’t quite achieve the same level of brightness. So, why do so many people choose DIY over the dentist? Everyone has their own reasons, but the biggest one is price.
On the low end, professional teeth whitening treatment starts at about $300 per session. However, more advanced systems can run over $1,000 per treatment. Though Spotlight can’t compete with the power of a chairside whitening session, their treatment can deliver significant results at a fraction of the cost.
Spotlight Whitening Strips usually cost around $25. Their kit comes with 28 teeth whitening strips (14 for the top teeth and 14 for the bottom). Unlike some of their competitors, Spotlight doesn’t offer financing on their products. However, you can sometimes catch a sale through third-party retailers like Amazon, which can bring the price down even further. It’s not the most affordable whitening out there, but it’s still a solid deal.
Each Spotlight Whitening Strips kit contains a Comforting Gum Oil pen. You’ll apply this along the gum line so that the whitening formula won’t cause pain if it gets on your gums. Gum sensitivity is one of the primary complaints about home whitening, so it’s nice that Spotlight includes a solution for that issue right there in your kit.
Quality of Ingredients
Spotlight Whitening Strips do a great job of brightening smiles, but how they arrive at those results is just as important. You want a whitening product that’s effective yet gentle, with ingredients that won’t irritate or damage your mouth.
Spotlight Oral Care products don’t use potentially harmful ingredients, which is a big selling point for many customers. These strips are free of:
- Sulfates
- Gluten
- BPA
- Parabens
- Triclosan
- DEA
They are also cruelty-free. If you are looking to enhance your smile in a healthy, mostly natural way, Spotlight Oral Care has you covered. But what are the actual ingredients they use? They are:
- Hydrogen peroxide 0.1%: This is the active whitening agent in the strips, oxidizing the teeth and lifting out the stains. This is the same whitening agent most dentist-directed treatments use, just in a far milder concentration.
- PVP: Short for polyvinylpyrrolidone, this binds the strips to the teeth.
- Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose: A thickener/binder that helps improve the adhesiveness of the strip once it comes in contact with your teeth.
- Glycerin: This helps pull moisture out of the enamel, making it easier for the peroxide to whiten them.
- Water: Without water, the gel becomes dry and ineffective.
- Alcohol: Like glycerin, alcohol helps to reduce the level of moisture in the enamel.
- EDTA: This helps enhance absorption, allowing the gel to get into the pores of the teeth faster.
- Sodium chlorite: This functions as a non-abrasive anti-microbial agent.
- Stevioside: A natural sweetener used to cover the taste of peroxide.
- Menthol: Peroxide has a rather unpleasant taste; this ingredient masks it with a peppermint-like flavor and scent.
All of these ingredients come together to make up the strips’ whitening gel, which goes on thick plastic that molds to the teeth with the help of the PVP. Unfortunately, we don’t have info on the ingredients used in the plastic itself. The Comforting Gum Oil is 100% vitamin E.
Convenience
As a busy adult, you don’t want whitening your smile to clutter your schedule. In fact, this is a big advantage of at-home whitening — you don’t need to take a couple of hours out of your workday to visit the dentist.
And whitening strips are one of the most convenient methods for brightening your smile. You’re not required to carefully brush gel onto your teeth or wear bulky trays for long periods of time. That said, Spotlight’s strips only take an hour at a time, which is on the longer end of the spectrum for whitening strips. Some competitors just require 15 or 30 minutes of wear, so Spotlight’s treatment will take more of your time.
Aside from the time commitment, Spotlight’s whitening sessions pretty much follow the same structure of their competitors. You start by getting out the strips you will need, selecting one for your top teeth and one for the bottom. Leave them inside their individual packets and take time to first brush and floss. Just stick to fluoride-free toothpaste; otherwise, the hydrogen peroxide won’t be able to penetrate your enamel.
Next, dry your teeth using a washcloth or by sucking in air through your teeth — just don’t close your mouth again until you’ve put on the strips.
Once your teeth are dry, apply the Comforting Gum Oil if needed. Then, using dry hands, remove the upper strip, line the top edge up with the gum line, and press it firmly against the teeth, wrapping the excess around to the back. Repeat with the bottom strip.
Then simply leave the strips in place for one hour. Once the time is up, peel off the strips, toss them in the garbage, and rinse your mouth to eliminate excess gel. Standard treatment is one whitening session per day for 14 consecutive days.
That’s it! While this involves a lot of steps, they are all rather quick. Plus, while wearing your strips, you can do pretty much anything besides eat and drink, so it’ll hardly disrupt your schedule — even if these sessions are longer than many of Spotlight’s competitors.
Comfort
Whitening your teeth is never 100% comfortable. No matter how thin your whitening strip is or how pleasant its flavor is, you still have a foreign object in your mouth, and whitening commonly causes dental sensitivity. Even though minimal discomfort is the baseline for whitening treatment, Spotlight Oral Care does a nice job mitigating the intrusiveness of their strips.
Even with just a 0.1% concentration of hydrogen peroxide, these strips can still cause discomfort for those with highly sensitive teeth. However, the company aims to lessen discomfort by providing a vitamin E pen that helps prevent the peroxide from burning your gums. If that’s not enough, take a look at our guide to the best whitening products for sensitive teeth.
Customers note that the strips themselves stay in place very well, partially due to how thick the plastic is. But this thickness makes them a bit more intrusive than other strips, and it can make talking slightly more difficult. It is up to you whether the stability is worth this additional thickness.
Finally, there’s the issue of flavor. Peroxide is many things, but tasty isn’t one of them. Customers seem to be split on this issue. Some find that the peppermint flavor completely masks the peroxide’s chemical taste, while others feel the peroxide overpowers the flavoring agent.
What Are Customers Saying?
Customers rave about how well Spotlight Oral Care whitening strips work to whiten teeth. Quite a few buyers noted that other strips they’d tried in the past delivered zero results, while these made a noticeable difference in as little as one day. They also commonly appreciate how the strips stay in place rather than slipping and sliding around.
The only complaints that came up on a semi-regular basis were about taste and sensitivity. Given that these are pretty common issues with teeth whitening products in general, we don’t feel that they should make or break your experience with Spotlight Whitening Strips.
Final Thoughts
Spotlight Whitening Strips offer a way to whiten your teeth without using too many unnatural ingredients. On top of that, they offer great results and convenience. While they might not be the right whitening strips for you, we certainly think they are worth a shot.
Not quite sold on Spotlight Whitening Strips? Check out our review of the 6 best whitening strips to compare your other options.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use whitening strips to brighten cosmetic or restorative dentistry?
It depends on the strips and the level of whitening you want. Whitening products cannot change the color of caps, crowns, and veneers; they can remove surface stains, though. Just be aware that some products can damage cosmetic and restorative dentistry, so use them with caution.
How do whitening strips work?
All whitening strips need a few essential elements: the strip itself, the whitening gel, and an adhesive that sticks them to the teeth. With the strip firmly in place, the whitening gel opens the pores in the enamel and breaks down the stains within, then lifts them out.
Should I whiten my teeth before or after my upcoming dental cleaning?
After! Your dentist’s deep cleaning eliminates tartar, which can prevent even whitening.
Can whitening strips damage my enamel?
If your teeth are healthy and you use the strips as directed, they should not damage your enamel.
What are the different types of teeth stains?
External, internal, and age-related. External stains are on the surface of the teeth and internal stains are trapped inside the enamel. Age-related “stains” are usually just the yellow of the dentin showing through thinning enamel.
Can I whiten my teeth while wearing braces?
Because braces are affixed to the teeth. Whitening gel cannot get underneath the brackets, so you will be left with a shadow on your teeth after your braces come off.
My strips are causing white spots on my teeth; what do I do?
Don’t panic. This is just the result of enamel dehydration, which is common for any whitening treatment that uses peroxide. After you finish your treatment, the enamel will rehydrate and the spots will go away.
I’m foaming at the mouth when I wear my strips. Is this normal?
Yes, hydrogen peroxide can foam when it comes into contact with saliva. This isn’t a sign of a problem.
Are there any tricks to keeping my teeth whiter for longer?
Yes! Try the following:
- Drink staining beverages through straws.
- Cut back on staining foods.
- Rinse your mouth after each meal.
- Make water your primary beverage.
- Brush at least twice per day and floss at least once per day.
- Use whitening toothpaste.
- Don’t smoke.
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