Professionally applied in-office whitening, professionally dispensed patient-applied home whitening, and the use of an over-the-counter product are effective in changing tooth color toward a lighter shade, whereas do-it-yourself whitening is not an effective tooth whitening modality.
SUMMARYAim: To evaluate the efficacy of do-it-yourself (DIY) whitening as compared to conventional tooth whitening modalities using different shade assessment tools.Methods and Materials: Extracted human molars (120) were randomly distributed to six groups (n=20). Whitening was performed according to manufacturer's directions for overthe-counter, dentist-dispensed for home use, and in-office whitening. DIY whitening consisted of a strawberry and baking soda mix. Additionally, negative and positive controls were used. Two evaluators used the Vita Classical (VC) and Vita Bleachedguide 3D-Master with interpolated numbers (BGi) for visual assessment at baseline and one-week, onemonth, and three-month postwhitening. Instrumental measurements were performed with a spectrophotometer. Kruskal-Wallis procedure was used to assess color changes among groups and intraclass correlation (ICC) to evaluate agreement between evaluators.Results: DIY exhibited lower color change (DSGU VC , DSGU BGi , DE*, where SGU = shade guide unit and E = overall color change) compared to other whitening groups at all time points (p,0.05). ICC demonstrated very