iWhite Oxegen Activated Tooth Whitening

Since my braces - proper metal train track numbers, I might add, none of your Invisalign or Six Month yokies here! - came off about five years ago, I've been mildly obsessed by keeping my teeth in excellent nick. So I was very, very excited when a box bearing the legend 'iWhite Oxygen Activated Professional Tooth Whitening', approximately €30, arrived through the letterbox recently.

My favourite at home method of tooth whitening until now has been Crest Whitestrips for the impressive results they provide with minimum fuss. How would this newfangled kit compare?

Well, first things first: it turns out that trying to compare the two is actually a bit like trying to compare apples and oranges. Despite my initial impressions, this isn't really a stick-on strip whitening system. It's really a tray system which happens to use peroxide-infused foam strips to deliver its whitening powers. These come in pairs in sealed pouches, to be pressed into the top and bottom of a double-sided arch mould into which both upper and lower teeth sit.

The promise is whiter teeth with 20 minutes daily use for a week, and indeed my teeth were noticeably whiter by the end of the seven days, so it's a thumbs up on that front. They were definitely a lot more sensitive than normal, despite using Sensodyne toothpaste for the duration of the treatment, but it wasn't unbearable and heightened sensitivity is par for the course with tooth whitening.

I found it much harder to put up with all the fizzing and foaming that was going on in my mouth (steady now) for 20 minutes a day while using iWhite. It felt a bit like I was chewing on a cocktail of denture cleaning tablets and Alka Seltzer while swishing soda water around in my mouth for good effervescent measure. That probably helps to lift stains and more effectively whiten teeth, but it mostly meant I was spending 20 minutes a day trying not to gag. I hope the results last for a while because I'm in no wild hurry to repeat that experience...

Stockists: Unicare, Sam McCauley Pharmacies and all good retailers nationwide.