Whitening strips and whitening pens are an extremely convenient, popular way to whiten your teeth at home, and they are also often used for touch ups to help maintain a bright white smile between whitening sessions at your dentist. Since these products spend a lot of time on store shelves at room temperature, they are usually engineered to be quite acidic in order to preserve their active whitening ingredients. Additionally, the way many at-home products are designed to be used permits significant contamination with saliva, which reacts with the bleaching agents and reduces their action on your teeth. In order to still be able to dissolve stains on teeth effectively and work as advertised, acids and calcium chelating agents are often needed in the product formulation; however, these ingredients can be quite harsh on your teeth.
To help you better understand your choices for tooth whitening, I have put together a table of the pH values for different tooth whitening strips and whitening pens that are readily available on the internet and in stores.
At-Home Tooth Whitening Strips & Whitening Pens
| Manufacturer | Whitening Product | Whitening Agent Concentration (%) | Tested pH | MSDS pH |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAO Dental | Sheer White! | 20% CP | – | ~7.0 |
| Philips | Zoom! Take Home Whitening Pen | 5-6% HP | – | 6.4-6.6 |
| P&G | Crest Whitestrips – Classic | 3-7% HP | – | 5.0 |
| P&G | Crest Whitestrips – Supreme | 14% HP | – | 5.0 |
| P&G | Crest Whitestrips – Professional | 5-10% HP | ~5.8 | 5.0 |
| P&G | Crest Whitestrips – Advanced Seal | 9.5% HP | – | 5.0 |
| P&G | Crest 3D White Whitestrips – Vivid | 9-10% HP | – | 5.0 |
| P&G | Crest Whitestrips Daily Multicare | 3-7% HP | – | 5.0 |
| P&G | Crest 3D White Whitestrips Express | 9.5% HP | – | 5.0 |
| P&G | Crest Whitestrips – Healthy Radiance | 10% HP | – | 5.0 |
| P&G | Crest 3D White Whitestrips – Stain Shield | 3-7% HP | – | 4.8-5.2 |
| P&G | Crest 3D White Whitestrips – Advanced Vivid | 9.5% HP | – | 5.0 |
| P&G | Crest 3D White Whitestrips – Gentle Routine | 3-7% HP | – | 5.0 |
| P&G | Crest Whitestrips – Renewal, Premium, Premium Plus | 9-10% HP | – | 5.0 |
| P&G | Crest 3D White Whitestrips – Professional Effects | 10% HP | – | 5.0 |
| P&G | Crest Whitestrips Daily Multicare with Tartar Control | 3-7% HP | – | 4.8-5.2 |
| P&G | Crest 3D White Whitestrips – Intensive Professional effects | 9.5% HP | – | 5.0 |
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