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Just a few decades before, the concept of at-home teeth whitening barely existed.
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Sagel’s main concern as he worked on his new assignment: the delivery system.
(His specialty was diffusion technology.
“We ran a small study and sure enough, peroxide trays do work,” he recalls.
“Peroxide is a wonderful whitening agent.
But there was a diffusion problem.”
Hydrogen peroxide whitens by getting down to the tooth’s dentin, which takes time.
After Whitestrips, its main focus was making those undecayed teeth gleam.
(Later, he is less coy: Zoom sold for close to $200 million.)
The history of the human tooth-decay epidemic is about as old as the Industrial Revolution.
Let me be enamel-clear: There is no health imperative to having white teeth.
And a tooth’s health cannot generally be measured by its whiteness.
“Our teeth naturally become discolored.
That’s normal,” says dental anthropologistPeter Ungar.
Instead, it endeavors to help cosmetic dentists select more skin-flattering shades of white.
In its turbulent 20s, over-the-counter whitening is still embracing experimentation.
Even Sagel is moving on from stripping.
There is a standardized scale for ranking the might of atoothpaste.
The ADA and some dentists consider everything under 250 RDA to be enamel-safe.
Others, likeBrian Harris, a cosmetic dentist in Phoenix, caution against anything above 100.
“I like at 70 or below,” he says.
Only toothpastes are ranked for RDA.
Human teeth are gorgeous as they are.
But not if we can help it.
There’s more:
Done reading?
Watch the evolution of dental care over 100 years:
