Is It Safe to Swish with Hydrogen Peroxide to Whiten Teeth?

You should never rinse with hydrogen peroxide to whiten your teeth!  This will not only not whiten your teeth, but you can do significant damage to your gums and lining of your mouth.  You can also disrupt the normal flora of bacteria in your mouth.  If you want to whiten please see your dentist for options.   

Thank you for asking a great question. 3% Peroxide is ok to use occasionally, but  whitening of the teeth will take some time. Professonal whitening systems do it much faster and more predictably.All the best to you.

Hydrogen peroxide is a bleaching agent, but using a medical grade solution, more than 3% won't do you or your teeth much good. Your teeth will whiten over time, but it could take months, or even years, before they will get brighter. Your best defense against stained and discolored teeth is a professional tooth whitening appointment. Our practice uses a few different professional tooth whitening procedures including Zoom!, which is a chairside whitening treatment that will give you whiter teeth in a single dental appointment. Good luck with your professional tooth whitening treatment!

I have to be careful here when I say most products that are available for rinsing with that have hydrogen peroxide, do no have a very high percentage. On the internet all manner of products are available, so I can not assume that the percentage is low (and therefore safe).Standard mouth rinses like Peroxyl may help with superficial stain. However this has a strong oxidising effect spread over your soft tissues. I would not recommend you to use this daily and permanently. Your dentist can provide in chair or home-trays to get an excellent whitening result that is safe.Good luck and hope you have successful whitening. Kind regardsThomas Dey, BDS, MSc

Swishing with hydrogen peroxide in very mild dose can keep the stains away but for whitening, you need a bit more prolonged action than 1 minute. So , it is safe in mouthwash forms (e.g. Peroxyl from Colgate ) but would not whiten teeth.

There are a couple things to consider.  Although one of the techniques of bleaching teeth involves the use of concentrated hydrogen peroxide especially formulated for dentists to use in the "in office bleaching technique", the effectiveness of using over the counter hydrogen peroxide as a mouth rinse to bleach your teeth is very ineffective. 

But, even more importantly, using hydrogen peroxide as a daily mouth rinse, and for that matter even mouth rinses that have alcohol in them, is contraindicated long term, and trying to use over the counter hydrogen peroxide to bleach your teeth would certainly require long term use to achieve any noticeable whitening at all.

I advise to stick with one of proven and tested techniques so that you an achieve the desired result in a safe and effective way.

Hydrogen peroxide will whiten teeth, but it takes a long (think months to years) time.

Hydrogen peroxide is a powerful oxidant.   Many people spend a lot of money on anti-oxidants to reduce cellular damage, why risk putting an oxidant on the soft delicate tissues of  your mouth.

Yes, dental whitening products do contain hydrogen peroxide but it is packaged in such a way to contact teeth only, quickly and effectively.  Why take a risk when we have great, inexpensive alternatives?

Good Luck and a Healthy, Bright Smile

The short answer - NO!  Please do not shich with Peroxide to whiten you teeth.  Teeth Bleaching agents state they have hydrogen peroxide in them but it is somewhat of a different delivery system.  Peroxide will clean you mouth but not whiten you teeth.  Also, please do not use Bleach to do this either.  I have seen it before and it is very dangerous as you could imagine.  Teeth bleaching at the dentist office is somewhat cheap these days compared to what it used to be. Usually between $150-300.  You can get a great result with take home bleaching and it usually takes about 10-14 days.  Please talk to your personal dentist about this and you will be pleased with the results! 

Absolutely not!  Hydrogen peroxide out of the bottle is not only ineffective in whitening teeth, but can damage your gums and the lining of your mouth.  Whitening products that contain hydrogen peroxide are specially formulated so as not to cause harm.  Ask your dentist what would work best for you. 

I have some patients that swish with 3% hydrogen peroxide as a part of their hygiene program. This can whiten the teeth over time but may take months to years to notice a difference. If you are serious about whitening your teeth talk with your dentist and decide what is the best method for you. Professional teeth whitening is still the best most predictable way to bright white smile.