Smile Xpress Shepherds Bush Westfield Shopping Centre Teeth Whitening

NoLogic

chomsky wrote: »

Don't worry, i'm sure most people are not fooled by the one post wonder spammers in this thread, don't they realise how bloody obvious they are. Jeez!

I got stopped in a shopping centre by one of these booths and they tried to give me the hard sell. Not sure if it was smile xpress but a very similar company if not. The sales woman gabbed on about the special whitening chemicals they use that apparently dentists fo not have access too and how the whitening is not carried out by "beauty therapists" but in fact "qualified dental nurses". Without meaning to offend (dental nurses if you're reading please correct me if i'm wrong) I am pretty sure dental nurses aren't qualified to carry out whitening in a dentist's surgery let alone in a stall in a shopping centre! How is it these people are allowed to do business?

I know, just worried as my parents and boyfriends parents often get sucked into things like that!:rotfl: it means they sent them on a 1 day course probably, and they don't have any knowledge other than tooth whitening!

jugglebug

chomsky wrote: »

Don't worry, i'm sure most people are not fooled by the one post wonder spammers in this thread, don't they realise how bloody obvious they are. Jeez!

I got stopped in a shopping centre by one of these booths and they tried to give me the hard sell. Not sure if it was smile xpress but a very similar company if not. The sales woman gabbed on about the special whitening chemicals they use that apparently dentists fo not have access too and how the whitening is not carried out by "beauty therapists" but in fact "qualified dental nurses". Without meaning to offend (dental nurses if you're reading please correct me if i'm wrong) I am pretty sure dental nurses aren't qualified to carry out whitening in a dentist's surgery let alone in a stall in a shopping centre! How is it these people are allowed to do business?

If we don't have access to their chemicals it is because we don't want em. Dental surgery techniques are safe, tested and reliable. Why would we want to go around sloshing chlorine dioxide and stuff around?
Dental Hygienists can whiten teeth after pt been seen by a dentist as long as they are suitably trained. Dont think nurses can.

These folks stay in business as trading standards officers have loads to do and will often only follow up after a complaint, by which time the mobile stall has gone, rebranded then opened up somewhere else. Often they are a franchise and the folks operating the individual stalls have no idea they are on shaky ground having fallen for the parent company "training"

chomsky_2

That's awful that there is so little trading standards can do. I was a little shocked to be honest that these dodgy stalls are in really nice locations/big shopping centres. It makes them appear legitimate as they have set up in a shopping mall, which is possibly why so many people are fooled by them.

dretamadi

SKH wrote: »

I am a dentist who was interested to read your posting.
You may find it useful to read the General Dental Councils view on teeth whitening.

'Under the Dentists Act 1984, the practice of dentistry can only be legally undertaken by GDC registrants: dentists, or hygienist or therapists working to a dentist’s prescription. The GDC regards tooth whitening as the practice of dentistry and we advise any member of the public wanting tooth whitening to speak to their dentist.

The Council has been sent around six hundred complaints in the past three years about this treatment being carried out in salons and clinics by non-registrants and we are currently exploring different approaches to tackling the issue. The matter is, however, legally complicated and it will be many months before we are sure of the best way forward. When we have the answer, we will publicise it on our website and in the Dental Press. Until then we cannot take any formal action on general complaints about tooth whitening other than writing to the relevant salon giving our position.
The GDC will, of course, continue to investigate allegations of patient harm as a result of tooth whitening and, where we have enough evidence, we will proceed with prosecution. We will also take action against any of our registrants who are carrying out this procedure outside the GDC’s scope of practice guidance. If you have a complaint which involves:

documented evidence of patient harm
a patient who is, or may be, willing to co-operate with the GDC or
an allegation of registrant practice outside the scope of practice guidance
please call us on 0845 222 4141 or email us at [EMAIL="illegalpractice@gdc-uk.org"]illegalpractice@gdc-uk.org[/EMAIL]'

As I understand it from smile xpress it is not a dentist, hygienist or therapist who actually caries out the whitening procedures.

I hope this is of some help.

---

NOTE ANONYNOUS DENTIST RESPONSE ABOVE

We need impartial debate and reviews, too many have vested interests;

Let’s get things in perspective, no matter where you go beautician or your local dentist, to get your teeth white you will have some degree of discomfort (zinger shooting pains in your teeth) during and after the treatment for up to 48 hours, although these pains usually disappear overnight. Clove oil or some sensitivity toothpastes can ease the pain, good beauty spas/salons will provide you with these.
Spas and salons get a bad press because they are easy targets as they aren't dentists, i suggest you go and have your teeth whitened at your local dentist, if they come out white, great, not everyone’s teeth will whiten, but you will experience the same discomfort as if you had them done at a beauty spa, apart from the fact that the dentist should guarantee that you don't get burned (white)gums with the bleaching gel by covering any soft tissue with a resin that is cured with the uv light (this is where some beauty spas/salons get it wrong, they allow bleach to seep under the resin barrier.
The preparation has to be good but you will get some zinger/shooting pains, anyone who doesn’t is lucky, once gel is applied to the enamel it opens up the pores/channels directly to the nerves duh! the level of pain varies from very little to a lot, it varies from one individual to another, but if you get zinger/shooting pains at your dentist after tooth whitening, you're not going to complain on a forum like this, you will just moan to friends or not at all, right!
Ask your dentist how many tooth whitening treatments they have performed in the last year, you just assume they know how to do it correctly, most only do a handful of treatments a year, some don't do any, and are therefore not any better than beauty spas/salons, in fact i'd argue that some beauty spa/salons are better than dentists at teeth whitening based on the fact that if those individual technicians are doing treatments every day, by their very nature they become very good at that particular task (tooth whitening).
Dentists of which i am one, have a strong lobby in the UK and an MP in parliament trying to get the EU law changed so that tooth whitening can only be performed by dentists, it is currently legal for non dentists to perform tooth whitening, but even dentists should only perform tooth whitening if they use gel that is under a certain strength of hydrogen peroxide concentration, but it’s a brave local council that takes a dentist to court on that, they won’t, the dentist lobby is too strong.
There are many scare stories in the press (daily mail/sun etc)all to this end, dentist are mainly trying to protect their incomes by lobbying for this, it just takes the occasional bad publicity that comes from shady operators like style smile to reflect on all other beauty spas/salons. I believe in fair comment that's why i'm giving my opinion. The best recommendation is one from a friend or family member, be it for using a beauty spa/salon or dentist, not all are the same, look at breast augmentation as an example, i presume you would ask a cosmetic surgeon how many procedures he’d undertaken wouldn’t you?
Stop being a wuss, ask, ask, ask, an experienced practitioner would love to tell you how many treatments they’ve performed (you won’t be able to get them to shut up), insist on the most experienced practitioner. Please be open minded, there are strong lobbys at work trying to discredit spas/salons, so take note of reviews on websites like these, but also factor in what i have said.
A lot of dentists haven't a clue about tooth whitening because they have little practical experience but no one questions them. Think who would you prefer to change your car tyres, quick fit or a car dealer. I’m sure my colleagues will hate me for airing these views, but it’s still a free country, so please don’t shoot the messenger, good luck. Dr Etemadi

dealer_wins

This thread is a classic.

Everyone at Smile Xpress has signed up on MSE at least twice now and posted their verbal diarrhea.