Aquafresh’s White Trays are Aquafresh’s response to the success of their competitor Crest’s Whitestrips products. Instead of copying Crest and making strips, Aquafresh came up with a whole new idea – peroxide gel in a tray wrapped around your teeth.
That’s basically how the White Trays work. You put the gel on the trays and stick them in your mouth, bite down, and let the peroxide soak in to your teeth. Unfortunately for Aquafresh, consumers have little in the way of choices. In fact, there is only one choice: Aquafresh White Trays. There aren’t different types or different strengths of White Trays, there’s just one kind. That’s okay, though, because White Trays work. They work excellently. The gel used in the White Trays contains 10% hydrogen peroxide, making them comparable with Crest’s Pro Effects or Advanced Seal products.
Compared to the Pro Effects and Advanced Seal Whitestrips, the White Trays surpass them in effectiveness in one regard. The White Trays more thoroughly whiten than the Whitestrips, because the gel can get into the grooves and the hard to reach places, whereas the Whitestrips can only lay across the top of the teeth, unable to go deep in between.
Sadly, the Aquafresh White Trays have some faults, too. Part of spreading around the teeth better comes with the inability to control exactly where the gel touches, causing gel to easily touch the gums, which can lead to burning, tissue damage, and sensitivity. Aquafresh answered this problem by releasing the Aquafresh Pro-Gentle System, which is simply the White Trays included with a toothpaste designed to reduce sensitivity.
Unfortunately, this downfall of Aquafresh’s White Trays is too much for it’s benefits to handle; they just don’t cancel it out. No matter how well a teeth whitening product works (and the White Trays do work very well), it does not excuse it from damaging the gums. With Aquafresh White Trays, damaging the gums is all too easy to do, even if you’re careful. Sure, the gum damage may be very minimal, but it is still gum damage. For this reason, we cannot give Aquafresh’s White Trays above three stars. White Trays are the result of valiant effort from Aquafresh to compete with Crest, but the trays just don’t make the cut.