The Best Teeth Whitening Kits in 2023 – CNET

If you didn’t like Colgate’s Optic White Whitening Toothpaste, fear not. While some might find that the Optic White toothpaste has a harsh taste, the brand’s Optic White LED whitening kit is a different story.

I tested the The LED light trays on fit, coverage, ease of use, sensations and length of wear.

The Colgate Optic White Advanced LED Whitening kit far surpassed the others I tested for this category. The instructions for this whitening method were easy to understand, the mouthpiece fit well (even for me and I have a tiny mouth), the gel covered all the teeth it was supposed to, I didn’t experience too much sensitivity and you only have to wear it for 10 minutes. 

Truly, the only downfall was that the device requires charging before your first use and in between uses, which is kind of a hassle. That’s a small price to pay for a teeth-whitening kit with so many other great features, though. 

I used the Colgate Optic White Advanced LED Whitening kit once a day for 10 minutes for three days and noticed an improvement in whiteness despite forgoing the full treatment (it’s designed for 10 days of use, but again, I couldn’t test all of these products for the full intended treatment without potential dental complications).

Teeth whitening kits aren’t exactly what most people would call riveting. But I must say I was blown away by the entire SmileBrilliant process and package. I wasn’t aware you could get custom fitted whitening trays anywhere other than a dentist’s office, but you can with SmileBrilliant. 

Wearing these whitening trays is just like wearing a retainer. They fit perfectly to your teeth because they’re designed using putty impressions you make of your teeth. The process works like this: You order a kit, SmileBrilliant sends you a putty impression kit, you return the impressions via prepaid packaging and then SmileBrilliant sends your custom fitted whitening trays within a matter of days. 

If you mess up during the impression process (which I did — my impressions were evidently a bit shallow), SmileBrilliant will either send you a new impression kit or go ahead with the trays if they think they can make it work. In the latter case, the company will still send an impression kit along with your whitening trays just in case. 

To use the trays, simply squeeze the carbamide peroxide whitening gel into your upper and lower trays and slip them on. Be careful not to squeeze too much gel, or it may spill over the tops of your trays and get on your gums and tongue. I did this the first time I wore my SmileBrilliant trays and the gel felt pretty tingly. Other than that, I had no problems with these trays, despite my shallow impressions. 

Colgate launched a trendy sub-brand in early 2020 called CO. by Colgate. If you’re looking for an LED whitening kit with a ton of other complementary products to complete your oral health routine, definitely browse these products. 

All of the CO. products have whitening power, including the toothpaste and foaming mouthwash (which feels as crazy as it sounds). What will really make your teeth shine, though, is the SuperNova LED rechargeable whitening kit. 

For the most part, this LED kit is the same as the Colgate Optic White kit described above. It features a flexible silicone tray, a whitening gel and an LED light to accelerate the whitening process. The SuperNova fit comfortably in my mouth and the gel felt smooth, not sticky or clumpy.

This whitening kit should be used 10 minutes per day for 10 days for the best results. Because it uses hydrogen peroxide and I have sensitive teeth, I didn’t use it for the full 10 days. After three days of use, I didn’t notice any abnormal sensitivity, which is a good sign.  

The main difference between the two Colgate kits, as far as I can tell, is that the Optic White kit comes with small, single-use squeeze tubes, whereas the SuperNova comes with a whitening pen. The process is the same, though: Squeeze whitening gel into the tray and bite down. 

The SuperNova comes with the It’s Lit whitening pen, which you can buy separately for refills. You can also buy the SuperNova plus toothpaste combo, which is less expensive for some reason. 

The whitening kit from Lumineux is not a typical teeth-whitening kit. Instead of hydrogen peroxide gel and an LED mouthpiece, this whitening kit simply includes daily essentials for teeth whitening, which is why it’s the best for sensitive teeth — most people with sensitive teeth can’t handle something like hydrogen peroxide and LED lights. 

This whitening kit includes Lumineux whitening strips, toothpaste and mouthwash, all of which use Lumineux’s patented formula containing coconut oil, dead sea salt and citrus oil.

For extra white teeth, don’t just use these products separately like you normally might. The instructions are explicit: Wear the strips for 30 minutes, brush immediately after for at least one minute and then rinse with the mouthwash for at least one minute. 

I love this kit because I have sensitive teeth and struggle to get through whitening treatments that involve bleach or hydrogen peroxide. 

This teeth-whitening kit is decent all around, but a few things prevented it from topping the list: The mouthpiece felt massive (although I have a small mouth) and the gel didn’t seem to spread evenly over my teeth. I also got quite a few white chemical burns from the gel in this product. 

However, if you’re looking for a whitening kit that costs less than $100, it couldn’t hurt to try this one, as long as you don’t have sensitive gums or teeth. 

The whitening gel is easy to dispense from the syringes — a welcome feature after spending too much time and effort squeezing tiny tubes of whitening gel with other products. The mouthpiece, though too big for me, feels rather nice on the teeth. It’s very squishy compared to the harder plastic in some other products. 

Finally, the case that comes with it is nice to have. It makes it easy to travel with your whitening kit if you want to.

Previously, Shyn had an LED whitening kit that used Rembrandt whitening strips, which I loved. It was on my original list of the best overall teeth whitening products. I liked the old kit because whitening strips are much less messy than whitening gel and, to my knowledge, that was the only whitening kit out there that used strips instead of gel.

Unfortunately, that product was discontinued, but Shyn now has a whitening kit that uses a carbamide peroxide whitening gel. The Shyn Brighter LED whitening kit is similar to other whitening kits on the market, especially the Colgate SuperNova. It comes with a silicone tray, an LED light device and whitening pens to fill the mouth tray with gel. 

This kit comes with three whitening pens, which is a nice touch, because you won’t have to order refills as soon as you would with other kits. When the time comes, you can buy a single maximum strength refill pen or a pack of three. You can use the pens without the LED tray, too, if you don’t want to walk around with a mouthpiece in. 

The Shyn Brighter kit also comes with a travel case. The case makes for neat storage at home in addition to traveling.