History of Professional Teeth Whitening

Don't Take for Grant Buying Teeth Whitening Over the Counter

Before there was Crest Whitening Strips or teeth whitening being sold in stores you could only buy teeth whitening in dentists’ office for $400 to $700.  The history of teeth whitening going from exclusively being sold in dentists office to being sold over the counter began with Professional Teeth Whitening in 1999. 

Ryan and Dr. Ned Gregerson saw the growing demand for teeth whitening in Dr. Gregerson’s dental practice and strived to find a way to sell teeth whitening outside the dentist office.  After researching the laws, they found that the only law inhibiting the sale of teeth whitening outside of a dentist office was a law that states, ‘you are practicing dentistry without a license if you take an impression of someone else’s teeth’.  They concluded that by a customer taking their own impression that they would not be practicing dentistry without a license.  This conclusion would soon be tested by dentist and dental boards throughout the United States. 

In September, 1999 Ryan and Ned Gregerson opened their first teeth whitening store in the Arizona Mills Mall with a simple business plan of selling the identical teeth whitening and teeth whitener dentists sell but for 1/3 the cost.  Little did they know that this simple business plan would cause such uproar within the dental community. 

Dentists, who had a monopoly on teeth whitening, were charging $500 to $600 and wanted to protect this income stream.  Dentists would visit the Professional Teeth Whitening Store and tell Professional Teeth Whitening workers how unethical they were for selling teeth whitening outside of the dental office (when asked why it was unethical, the dentists could not reply with a viable answer).   Many of a time dentist would become so enraged that they would grab the teeth whitening product on display and throw it.    Some would become so enraged that they would not leave the Professional Teeth Whitening store and mall security would have to escort them from the mall. 

The dental community did not stop there.  At the becking of the dentists, Nite White and Opalescence (companies that make teeth whitener), sent Professional Teeth Whitening cease and desist letters demanding that Professional Teeth Whitening stop selling their products or face legal consequences. 

Due to the fact that this did not deter Professional Teeth Whitening, multiple dental boards tried to prosecute Professional Teeth Whitening for practicing dentistry without a license.   In November, 1999 Professional Teeth Whitening went before the Arizona Dental Board.  The dental board tried to prosecute Professional Teeth Whitening for practicing dentistry without a license Based on a law that states ‘you are practicing dentistry without a license if you take an impression of someone else’s teeth’. 

The board that consisted of 10 dentists, 1 hygienist and 1 layman.  After hearing the argument that Professional Teeth Whitening was practicing dentistry without a license, the board voted.   All 10 dentists and 1 hygienist voted that Professional Teeth Whitening had violated this law and wanted the owners to be thrown in jail for 1 year and fined $350,000.  The only person that did not vote for this was the layman. 

If it had been up to the dentists and hygienist, the history of teeth whitening would have stopped there and teeth whitening would still today be sold only in dental offices.  However the District Attorney interrupted the board and said he would not prosecute Professional Teeth Whitening because they had not violated this law and that Professional Teeth Whitening was not taking the impression of customer’s teeth, the patient was.  The dentist continued to argue that by the simple fact that Professional Teeth Whitening provided material to take an impression, they were inadvertently taking the impression.  Professional Teeth Whitening countered by saying that if this was the case, the manufactures of football mouthpieces were practicing dentistry without a license because they provided material for customers to take an impression of their teeth and if this was the case, the board should prosecute them, too. 

As Professional Teeth Whitening grew from 1 store to stores throughout the United States, Professional Teeth Whitening went before the dental boards in these various states to argue that they were not practicing dentistry without a license and defended themselves successfully in 7 states (New York, Utah, Minnesota, Missouri, Arizona, Florida and California). 

Not only was Professional Teeth Whitening being prosecuted, its founder Dr. Gregerson was too.  Prior to Dr. Gregerson’s involvement in Professional Teeth Whitening, he would travel to Chicago each month as a member of the ADA (American Dental Association) xxxx  board to formulate policy for the ADA and travel to Salt Lake City as the President of the Utah Dental Association.  Upon becoming involved with Professional Teeth Whitening, Dr. Gregerson’s colleagues in these boards asked him to resign in which he did. 

A Couple of years after opening a store in the Arizona Mills,  Professional Teeth Whitening paved the way for other companies to begin selling teeth whitening in stores, companies like Proctor & Gamble (Crest Whitening Strips) and Colgate. 

Professional Teeth Whitening has seen an industry that started out with yearly teeth whitening sells in the low millions evolve to an industry with teeth whitening sells in the billions.  As a pioneer in teeth whitening, Professional Teeth Whitening started out with a simple plan of ‘selling the identical teeth whitening and teeth whitener dentists sell but for 1/3 the cost’ and continues with this same simple concept today.