The Best Teeth-Whitening Pen: Brighten Your Smile at Home

Teeth whitening pens can provide whiter teeth at a low cost.

byEdmund Torr| PUBLISHED Jul 14, 2021 6:01 PM

The Best Teeth-Whitening Pen: Brighten Your Smile at Home — Touch up your smile with a teeth whitening pen. *Diana Polekhina, Unsplash*

Who doesn't want a nice set of pearly whites? Teeth whitening is big business and pens are among the newer products on the market. They've gained popularity due to their relative low cost, ease of use, and a general obsession with white teeth. These products do work; they’re not snake oil. But they’re also much less effective than treatments at a dentist. They're also not quite as good as teeth-whitening strips. That said, consistent use can lighten the shade of your teeth. Plus, they’re unlikely to irritate your mouth, they’re affordable, they’re easily portable, and they’re quite safe.

Active ingredients: Teeth-whitening pens these generally use a hydrogen-peroxide solution. Older pens sometimes used carbamide peroxide, but those aren’t quite as common. When you’re looking for a teeth-whitening pen, make sure that the product actually says what’s in it. That’s because there are few rules dictating the ingredients they can contain.
FDA and ADA: Teeth-whitening pens are not approved by the FDA or the American Dental Association. The FDA classifies these products as cosmetic and thus outside their sphere of concern, which means that nobody is really checking to make sure that they work. So you have to do a little bit of work yourself. Check to make sure that hydrogen peroxide is one of the ingredients in your pen.
Consistency: When using a fairly low-intensity whitening product like these, the most important thing is consistency in your application. Make sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions and don’t miss any treatments. You’ll have to apply at least once a day for several weeks to see a result. It’s easy to get discouraged after a couple of days, but sometimes, good things take time.

Our Picks for the Best Teeth Whitening Pen on Amazon

Top Pick Overall: Colgate Optic White

Top Pick Overall

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This tool is designed to be used just before you hit the hay. They estimate 35 treatments in each pen and you can control how much serum you apply to avoid irritation.

Runner Up: Smile Direct Club Whitening Kit

Runner Up

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This kit includes the standard pens and you only have to apply it for five minutes at a time. The one-week treatment is formulated with a lightening accelerator, but use it sparingly as it may irritate sensitive teeth.

Budget Pick: AsaVea Teeth-Whitening Pen

Budget Pick

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Using a carbamide peroxide solution, this compact, simple-to-carry pen also costs less than 20 bucks.

Premium Pick: SNOW Teeth Whitening Kit

Premium Pick

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This kit is high-end, but also high tech, using machine learning with a smartphone app (iOS and Android) to see exactly what the shade of your chompers are.

Better You is a shopping-advice and product-review site brought to you by the publishers of Popular Science and Outdoor Life magazines. We’re here to help you choose among the most popular products on Amazon, and hidden gems our experts think are worth checking out.

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