Smile Brilliant At-Home Professional Teeth Whitening System Review

Happy Friday y’all! Today I have something quite different to show you. It’s a review of a brand called Smile Brilliant. They provide professional teeth whitening products that you can administer at home! Something I was quite intrigued by…

From dental hygiene to irrational fears (I am always concerned about my teeth falling out! Haha!) to the color and appearance of them, I am pretty conscious of my teeth. For me, a person’s smile is one of the first things I notice about them. So when I started noticing the years of coffee and tea drinking showing up on my teeth I was pretty worried about it! I asked for professional in-office teeth whitening on my birthday, on Christmas and on our anniversary from my husband. My wish was never granted. I’m sure he thought it was a strange thing to ask for; and it was. But it was also an expensive wish! The average cost of in-office teeth whitening at the dentist in the U.S. is 650 big-ones! Needless to say, we both thought the money was better spent on something a little more lucrative.

I have been using teeth whitening strips off-and-on for years to help combat the staining of my teeth. While they do work for me, they aren’t the be-all-and-end-all in teeth whitening, in my opinion. I always found them difficult to keep on. They slid around like crazy, I literally could not move my mouth while I had them on and even so, they were just gliding all over. They only covered my front 6 - 8 teeth so the back teeth never changed in color, which looked odd once you noticed the whitening taking effect. It also took so long to see much of a difference. Sometimes, I’d go through practically the whole box of white strips before I felt my teeth were noticeably whiter. So, while they did work in the interim, teeth whitening strips weren’t ideal.

I started to consider the in-office teeth whitening very seriously when I received an email from someone at Smile Brilliant offering to provide a Smile Brilliant kit for review on my blog. I had never heard of the brand (or the concept of in-home professional teeth whitening for that matter.) I was very skeptical at first. I tend to be that way with review opportunities I receive through email, whether it’s nail polish, makeup, skin care or in this case, teeth whitening alternatives. So, I set ahead to do my research. I read other reviews, I watched YouTube videos, I read their website thoroughly and I looked at Google reviews and ratings. I was not about to jeopardize my teeth for a fix that seemed just too good to be true! Luckily, after a couple days of researching, I decided it seemed pretty legit and accepted. I was truly excited!

So what makes this concept so different from in-office whitening and teeth whitening strips? It’s the fact that you get all the materials to create custom fit whitening trays sent directly to your home! Much like at the dentist or orthodontist if you’ve ever gotten tooth impressions done, you mix together this putty looking material, smear it into a tray and then squish it into your mouth and wait for it to cure. Once it’s done, you send it back to the Smile Brilliant lab where their techs create your custom fitted trays and send them back to you so you can get down to business! Simple! Here’s the steps and how the process and experience went down for me:

The Kit

The kit comes with:

• Impression material (3 jars of catalyst paste and 3 jars of base paste)
• An envelope with pre-paid postage
• Professional teeth whitening gel (mine came with 3 syringes of gel but there are options for 6 and 9 as well.)
• 2 impression trays
• Desensitizing gel; optional for additional cost (my kit came with 3 syringes of gel)
• 2 year teeth whitening tray replacement warranty
• Detailed instructional brochure

The kit INCLUDES but is not present in the initial pack (meaning you will get this when your new custom trays are shipped to you):

• Custom fit whitening trays
• Compact carrying case to store whitening trays in
• Custom plaster dental models (entirely unnecessary but completely cool!)

Creating Impressions

1. Floss and brush your teeth thoroughly! Get in all your nooks and crannies. Any leftover food or gunk left in your teeth or gums will be apparent in your impression and can affect the fit of your whitening trays.
2. Make sure your hands are clean and dry and mix together ONE jar of catalyst past with ONE jar of base paste. Combine it quickly, until it takes on a uniform pale purple color. That means it’s mixed thoroughly and can cure properly.
3. Roll the mixed paste out into a thick log-like shape and fit it nicely into the blue impression tray.
4. This is the most important part. Quickly, carefully and evenly press the tray with impression material into your top teeth. It’s vital that you press the tray into your teeth as evenly as possible. Try and keep the tray parallel to your teeth the entire time. The impression material should cover your gum line but don’t let your teeth touch any part of the impression tray itself.
5. Once it’s properly placed, let it sit for at least a minute and a half to process. They will be pretty hard but just lightly spongey.
6. Remove the trays carefully! Don’t wiggle them or rock them back in forth to remove. Try to remove them in a straight down (or up) motion with one swift movement.
7. Repeat steps 2 - 6 for your lower teeth. Do not pre-mix your second batch of impression material as it will harden before you have a chance to use it.
8. Leave the impression material in the blue trays and let it sit for at least 30 minutes to harden entirely. I let it sit overnight to be safe.
9. Lightly rinse the impressions with water.
10. Enclose both impressions in the impression trays (and the included post card, completed with your info) in the pre-paid envelope and mail it!
11. Once the impressions are received by Smile Brilliant (you will receive an email saying they were received), they will create the whitening trays and ship them to you within 4 business days.

Whitening Process

1. Once you have your whitening trays, try them on and make sure they fit well. They should fit like a glove!
2. Floss and brush your teeth thoroughly! Get in all your nooks and crannies. Any leftover food or gunk left in your teeth or gums can affect the whitening process.
3. If you are using the desensitizing gel, you’ll want to do this before you continue with the whitening process. Click here for instructions on how to use it. I used it on my first time whitening but didn’t feel it was necessary for me any of the other times. It’s all about preference, you know your tooth sensitivity better than anyone.
4. Apply a string of whitening gel along the inner front side of your whitening trays.
5. Place the trays onto your teeth in a back teeth to front teeth motion to ensure the gel stays where it’s intended and that you’ll get the most even whitening possible.
6. Let the gel process for 1 - 3 hours.

Here is a look at the whitening trays. They are flexible and fit against the teeth nicely!

My Experience, Tips, & Tricks

Everything basically went off without a hitch. I was so worried about creating the impressions and that I would mess up (luckily there is an extra catalyst and base paste if you do) but it was all quite simple! When I received the whitening trays, the top one fit perfectly, the bottom one didn’t fit too well because of my permanent retainer on my lower teeth but I couldn’t blame Smile Brilliant for that. I decided to give it a go as it was but it wasn’t working too well so I emailed my contact at Smile Brilliant about it and he we awesome! He sent more supplies to make a new impression with another prepaid envelope. When I got my package with the new whitening trays, there were TWO different lower trays to try out and lo and behold, they both fit like a glove. I was so impressed with the Smile Brilliant staff’s professionalism and customer service!

I whitened my teeth every other day for a week. I was slightly concerned about sensitivity so I used the desensitizing gel the first time and only left the whitening gel on for 45 minutes. I didn’t see much of a result. The next time, I decided to try it without the desensitizing gel and left the trays in for one hour. I couldn’t tell if I saw a result or if it was just my mind playing tricks on me and there was no sensitivity. After the third time, leaving the trays in for one and half hours, I really did notice a difference and by the fourth time and 2 hours of processing, the difference was huge. Each 3ml syringe of whitening gel lasted about 4 - 5 rounds of whitening for me so you really don’t need much to get a great payoff! I didn’t notice any sensitivity in my teeth but that doesn’t mean you won’t, so just be aware of it. I’ve used the whitening trays about a total of 9 times now and I feel really great about my teeth! I really notice in photos that my smile seems a lot brighter and whiter and more pleasant and I enjoy pictures of myself a lot more because of it!

Here is my before and after. I used two photos where I was wearing similar lipstick and it was roughly the same lighting so it was as accurate as possible!

In conclusion, I am so pleased with and impressed by this system. I highly recommend it. I honestly can’t think of a downside. The price point, the ease of use, the quality of products, the results were all outstanding. My only regret is not knowing about this sooner! :)

Please keep in mind that results may vary from person to person depending on the natural color of your teeth. Please also be aware of teeth sensitivity and allergies before use. I recommend testing products on your skin in an inconspicuous place before use. If you have any sores or lesions on your gums or mouth, I would recommend waiting for it to heal before you use the whitening gel, as it can cause pain or discomfort when it comes in contact with the wound. I had a little spot that started bleeding after I had flossed and without thinking, I put in the trays and it caused a bit of irritation and pain. This seems like common sense but it didn’t even occur to me until it started hurting since it wasn’t painful beforehand.

If you’d like even more information about this system, here is a great informative video about it!

GIVEAWAY!

If you are as excited as I am about this system, head on over HERE! Thanks to Smile Brilliant, one lucky winner will get a $139.95 store credit which is equal to (1) Teeth Whitening Trays + 3 whitening gel syringes and 3 desensitizing gel syringes OR (1) Teeth Whitening Trays + 6 whitening gel syringes! The last day to enter the giveaway is AUGUST 28TH, 2015 at 12AM PST!

The Smile Brilliant At-Home Professional Teeth Whitening System can be purchased on their website. Prices start $119.95 (for the kit with 3 syringes of whitening gel) and go up to $154.95 (for the kit with 9 syringes of whitening gel.) It’s a really great value if you consider the cost for in-office teeth whitening or how much you’d need to spend on whitening strips to get the same result.

And because my sweet little kitty Pei Pei was sitting with me throughout the whole process, here we are after we finished making the impressions! :)

Cost of Teeth Whitening