Evaluation of Turkish Dentists’ Approach to Over-the-Counter Whitening Agents: A Questionnaire-Based Study

TL;DR

A study in Turkey found that most dentists do not recommend over-the-counter teeth-whitening products, with toothpaste being the preferred choice among those who do.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into Turkish dentists' recommendations of over-the-counter whitening products and identifies factors influencing these choices.

Findings

57.9% of Turkish dentists do not recommend over-the-counter whitening products.

Private sector dentists are more likely to not recommend whitening products compared to public sector dentists.

Toothpaste is the most commonly recommended whitening product among those who do recommend.

Abstract

Aim: Over-the-counter teeth-whitening products have become popular in accordance with the increasing demands of patients. These products can also be recommended to patients by dentists. The aim was to determine the rates of recommendation of over-the-counter teeth whitening products by dentists in Turkey divided into different categories for their patients and to interpret them based on a cause-and-effect relationship.

Material and methods: After obtaining ethics committee approval, the survey questions were created using Google Forms (Google Inc., Mountainview, CA) and delivered to dentists via social media. Dentists who signed the informed consent form completed the survey. Within the study’s scope, statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 26.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Values were expressed as frequency (n) and percentage (%). A chi-square test was used to compare participants’ teeth-whitening recommendations according to their demographic characteristics. The statistical significance level was accepted as p <0.05 throughout the study.

Results: A total of 57.9% of dentists working in Turkey did not recommend over-the-counter teeth-whitening products to their patients. When the answers to the question “Which whitening products sold on the market do you recommend to your patients?” were compared according to the participants' place of work, there was a statistically significant difference between the place of work and the recommended whitening product (p <0.05). Participants working in the private sector answered “I do not recommend” at a higher rate than participants working in the public sector. Among those who recommended toothpaste, more dentists with five or fewer years of experience recommended toothpaste to their patients than dentists with greater than five years of experience. Additionally, more dentists working in the public sector recommended toothpaste to their patients than dentists working in the private sector, and more specialist dentists recommended toothpaste to their patients than general practitioner dentists.

Conclusion: Most dentists in Turkey do not recommend over-the-counter teeth-whitening products to their patients. Among those who recommend such products, toothpaste has been determined to be the first choice. The results of this study may raise awareness among dentists about over-the-counter teeth-whitening products and encourage new studies.