History

Teeth whitening remedies have been present since ancient times. Despite seeming absurd, some methods were somewhat effective in their results.

The Ancient Romans believed in using urine with goat milk to make their teeth look whiter.citation needed Pearly white teeth symbolized beauty and marked wealth. In the Auyrveda medicine system, oil pulling was used as an oral therapy. For this process today, swish coconut or olive oil in your mouth for up to 20 minutes each day. In the late 17th century, many people reached out to barbers, who used a file to file down the teeth before applying an acid that would, in fact, whiten the teeth. Although the procedure was successful, the teeth would become completely eroded and more prone to becoming decayed. Guy de Chauliac suggested the following to whiten the teeth: "Clean the teeth gently with a mixture of honey and burnt salt to which some vinegar has been added." In 1877, oxalic acid was proposed for whitening, followed by calcium hypochlorite.

In the late 1920s, mouthwash containing pyrozone (ether peroxide) was found to reduce caries while providing a whiter appearance to the teeth. By 1940s and 1950s, ether and hydrogen peroxide gels were used to whiten vital teeth, whereas non-vital teeth were whitened using pyrozone and sodium perborate.

In the late 1960s, Dr William Klusmeier, an Orthodontist from Fort Smith, Arkansas, introduced the custom tray bleaching. However, it was not until 1989 when Haywood and Heymann published an article that supported this method. Carbamide peroxide with a shelf life of one to two years, as opposed to hydrogen peroxide with a shelf life one to two months, was seen as a more stable agent for whitening teeth.