UV light-enhanced tooth bleaching may be harmful to skin and eyes, especially among fair-skinned patients. A new study claims that bleaching with UV is no more effective than bleaching without UV, and can cause four times the damage of sunbathing.
The study’s lead author, Ellen Bruznell of the Nordic Institute of Dental Materials, also found that bleaching can damage teeth, leading to more exposed grooves on the surface of teeth. (The study was published in Photochemical & Photobiological sciences, a journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.)