Vital bleaching with two at-home professional systems

Purpose: To compare the whitening effectiveness of two professional vital bleaching systems in a randomized clinical trial. Materials and Methods: Balancing for baseline color, 69 adult volunteers were randomized to either a whitening strip containing 6.5% hydrogen peroxide (Professional Crest Whitestrips) or a custom tray-based system using both hydrogen and carbamide peroxide (Nite White Excel2). Total contact time was 21 hours for the strip system and 28 hours for the 10% carbamide peroxide equivalent tray system. Whitening response was measured objectively as L*a*b* from digital images of the maxillary anterior teeth. Results: Both treatments resulted in significant (P < 0.01) improvements in yellowness (Deltab*), brightness (DeltaL*) and overall color (DeltaE*). For between group comparisons, strip subjects had a statistically significant or directionally favorable whitening response relative to the tray system at intermediary time points, while at the end-of-treatment, the strip group had highly statistically significant (P less than or equal to 0.005), superior whitening response for all color parameters measured in the study. Both treatments were generally well tolerated, with 35-40% of the subjects in each group reporting minor tooth sensitivity or gingival irritation.