Hello, hello!
I was contacted by the online marketing team from Smile Brilliant to see if I was interested in testing out their customized at-home teeth whitening system in exchange for my honest review, which I was because I drink coffee, tea (and red wine in the colder months) – all of which can cause tooth staining.
I’ve tried dental whitening strips in the past, and found them to be uncomfortable and annoying to use because they kept sliding off, irritated my gums and did not whiten evenly. At the dentist whitening is out of my price range at $500+.
After being asked a few questions about my teeth (dental health, sensitivity etc) my Smile Brilliant Kit arrived in the mail.
The Kit:
My Smile Brilliant kit arrived and in it are the things you need to make your dental impressions, and syringes of the whitening and desensitizing gels. As well, there is a mailer to send your dental impression back to the lab.
[If you are in the US, you will receive a postage paid return envelope, if you are outside of the US, you have to pay your return postage. That being said, the postage for the kit and the custom trays is free for domestic shipping and is $29 for international shipping.]
[If you are in the US, you will receive a postage paid return envelope, if you are outside of the US, you have to pay your return postage. That being said, the postage for the kit and the custom trays is free for domestic shipping and is $29 for international shipping.]
Making the dental impressions:
Not going to lie, I was initially scared removing the dental impression trays, for two seconds I was sure that my teeth were going to come out with it. Totally didn’t happen. It is actually quite easy to do – and the kit comes with step by step instructions. Once the dental impressions have been made, you just pop them into the mailing envelope and send it to them. The Smile Brilliant Lab then makes the custom dental trays from your impressions.
The whitening process:
Floss and brush teeth with only water (do not use toothpaste because the fluoride in it will act as a barrier and slow the whitening process). Whiten for 1-3 hours. Start with shorter sessions and work your way up to leaving your trays on longer as your teeth are comfortable (especially if teeth are sensitive). Brush teeth with toothpaste as normal. Rinse the whitening gel from trays with cool water and fully dry them (a Q- tip works well). Apply desensitizing gel to trays for 15 to 20 minutes. Simply swish the excess desensitizing gel and spit. This should leave a thin layer of the desensitizing gel on your teeth. Each syringe has enough gel for 3-4 applications (one application = both top and bottom mouthpieces). [info taken from the Smile Brilliant FAQ]
My experience:
I started the whitening process on October 11th – usually while watching a movie or reading before bedtime. The custom dental trays are surprisingly comfortable to wear and stay in place.
Because I have sensitive teeth, it was recommended that I start with a 45 minute whitening followed by 20 minutes with the desensitization gel, and skip a day in between to gauge my sensitivity. Since my sensitivity was very minimal, I increased my whitening time to 1 hour on October 15th , and started whitening daily after that point for a total of 8 sessions.
The below photo shows my level of staining before and the level of whitening I achieved after just 8 sessions! I’m going to save the rest of my syringes for a “touch up” in a few months.
Before (top) and after (bottom):
I found it difficult to judge the amount of gel to use at first, so I marked the syringes with a sharpie into four sections as each syringe has enough gel for 3 to 4 applications. This made it easier for applying the gel evenly into the dental trays.
I think that this is a great method for at home dental whitening. And price-wise it is so much more affordable than dental office whitening – the kits range in price from $129 to $159 USD Non-Sensitive, and from $139 to $179 USD for Sensitive kits. The kits vary in price based on the level of staining and number of whitening (+desensitizing) syringes.
Feel free to ask me any questions about my experience.
Disclosure: PR sample. However, my opinion is very much my own!
a brash attitude 
awesome xx
i just started trying them out too xx
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cool!
have a great day Cat! xoxo
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u toooooooo
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The results are noticeable!
I’ve done all sorts of whitening systems including rinses, paste, strips, at home trays like this, and the professional at-dentist office $$$ ones. The dentist professional one is of course the most effective but the important thing is the maintenance in between. I’m actually thinking of doing another round of whitening!
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In real life, it looks even better!
I kept a few syringes to do a “touch up” since my tea consumption greatly increases when the weather gets cold.
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Nice post Jodi! Thanks for sharing 😍👌
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Thanks for reading and commenting! 🙂
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You are welcome dear😊
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What a fab kit to test, I would love to give this a try! I’m in the UK and while there are plenty of toothpastes and such promising ‘whiter’ teeth, nothing has ever really worked for me (also a tea drinker among other things that further stain teeth). It makes me very self-conscious not having pearly whites so I’m up for giving a proper kit like this a go. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Caz x
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I hope that you entered the giveaway!
I was surprised by how well that it worked for me, and I saved a few syringes for a touch up since I drink tea and red wine in the winter.
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I have! 🙂
It will be interesting to hear how to results last over time for you, too, so keep us posted! xx
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Very interesting. I like the idea of the custom trays. I was sent a teeth whitening kit a couple years ago as PR and it was awful. The whitening gel tasted awful (they claimed it was tasteless… tasteless my white butt!), the trays were super uncomfortable/borderline painful and I drooled more than a rabid St Bernard. And it didn’t work. I saw NO difference after several uses.
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The custom trays are actually comfortable, that was the biggest surprise.
I did drool like crazy when doing the dental impressions for the custom trays though, haha!
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I’ve tried out Smile Brillant before and they are great! Prior to using them I always got my teeth professionally whitened at my dentist but knowing the more affordable kits like these work saves so much money. Especially when all you have to do is keep the trays and just purchase the refills!
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So true!
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Wow the results are fab! I had some teeth trays made up at the dentists to wear over night, But my bottom teeth used to ache for the whole of the following day and became quite painful and sensitive so I stopped using them. Desenitising gel sounds like a good idea, and it’s fab that you can wear these for shorted periods of time.
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Thanks! Oh that sounds horrible, I’m glad that these trays fit my mouth well.
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It actually made me LOL when you said you thought your teeth were going to come out! Mine trays fit like a dream, it’s just the gel that I think is the problem, and it’s proper dentists stuff too!
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Haha, i know it sounds funny, but for a second I really thought it would happen!
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You can really see a difference in the before and after! Super cool!
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And that was after just 8 sessions! I’m super happy with the results!
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Thank you for such a thorough review! I’ve always been interested in teeth whitening but have been really lazy and haven’t looked into it much with my sensitive teeth. It’s so cool that you send the impressions back for a custom tray. Thanks for providing so much detail – I definitely think I’ll give them a go (if I don’t win the giveaway of course – fingers crossed I do!)
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Good luck Belinda!
I had been thinking about at the dentist Whitening, but it was out of my budget range right now, so I’m super happy that I was able to try this!
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You got great results!
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