They say “a smile can light up your whole face” and what better way to do that than with the pearliest of whites?

Long gone are the days when us Brits were stereotyped for having crooked, tea-stained teeth. Today, the UK teeth whitening industry is bigger than ever before, estimated to be worth £2bn, and it’s no surprise why. Crystal white teeth look great in person and in pictures.

But whilst you can spend hours trialling a new ‘wonder’ product every week, scrubbing, oil-pulling and charcoaling your teeth, you could just visit a professional. Dentists are increasingly offering affordable whitening treatments, with instantaneous results.

These teeth whitening procedures are giving women and men the confidence to smile again. However, in some cases, the pursuit of this happiness can lead to devastating effects.

It is no surprise that such a popular market attracts certain people who want to make a quick buck at the expense of your dental safety. Increasingly, untrained and unsafe Beauty Therapists are offering super cut-price procedures which “claim” to whiten teeth.

Ask your friends, read reviews, do a quick Google search and it doesn’t take long to find horror stories. From such excruciating sensitivity a man couldn’t drink water for 3 days, to a Beauty Therapist in Yorkshire who was using such dangerous levels of hydrogen peroxide, she was  burning and bleaching her customers’ mouths. These so-called “Therapists” are jumping on a trend that takes a professional to fully understand and perform.