Crest Whitening Strip user and TikToker Giorgina Juanita (@gjuanita) is stunned. That’s because she just discovered that she hasn’t been maximizing the usage of the oral care product.
In a viral clip with over 4.2 million views, she says she’s just discovered that Crest Whitening Strips stretch. This way, they can cover all of her teeth. Throngs of other users on the application seem just as surprised as she is.
Proper use of whitening strips
“I genuinely feel dumb right now. You know these Crest Whitening Strips that I’ve literally been using for like five years,” she says. “I always thought, oh it’s annoying that they don’t cover your whole row of teeth.”
She demonstrates her gripe by holding up one of the plastic whitening strips to her mouth. However, she then turns the packaging around and begins reading. “It literally says on this strip: peel, stretch,” she emphasizes the second word.
Juanita continues, “And apply.” She holds up one of the strips in front of her face and tests to see if it will stretch. It slowly begins to change shape in front of her.
“Like, you stretch them,” she says, in awe that she hasn’t known about this capability the entire time. “And they do cover your whole row of teeth.”
Next, the clip transitions to her applying the newly stretched whitening strip over her top row of chompers. “Oh my Gosh,” she says, lips peeled back and mouth bare.
As she pats the strip down on her teeth she says, “Like they cover everything now.” Following this, she grabs the second strip meant for her bottom teeth. She stretches that out as well as she looks in the direction of the camera. “Like, are you kidding me? Like, are you kidding me?”
“I always said why do they make the lower strip so short? You can stretch them,” she says.
Others find them short
One Redditor also expressed a similar grievance in this post uploaded to the site’s r/beauty sub. They ask, “Why are Crest white strips so small?” In comment replies to the user, several Redditors replied that they didn’t find this to be the case.
Actually, some said they thought the strips were too large for their teeth. Someone else said that the strips were actually only designed to whiten the teeth that show in a person’s mouth.
However, one Reddit user asked OP if they were stretching the strips before applying them to their teeth. For some reason, their asking this question netted them -16 downvotes: “Are you stretching them before application? That’s what you should be doing.”
@gjuanita all we had to do was read the INSTRUCTIONS it literally says STRETCH and they cover it all
♬ original sound – giorginajuanita
Do whitening strips actually work?
Yet another Reddit user wondered about the efficacy of Crest Whitening Strips. Several folks who responded to them in their post swore that they do, in fact, leave their teeth whiter.
Although one common gripe users expressed is that it left their teeth feeling sensitive. “They work but I quit halfway through the box because they made my teeth sensitive,” one wrote. Another echoed this sentiment, stating, “Same thing happened w me!”
Dentist’s office Gentle Dental Maine penned an article on whether or not teeth whitening strips work. According to the doctors at this facility, they are, indeed, an effective teeth whitening tool. But the facility does state they aren’t the most effective means of whitening one’s teeth. According to the facility, professional dental whitening services are more effective.
Some TikTokers were just as surprised
One commenter thought that, like Juanita, one’s back teeth just weren’t meant to be whitened. “I always thought the back ones just didn’t matter,” they penned.
Another replied, “Um. I also had no idea. I thought it was just because you can’t see those back teeth when you smile.”
Someone else told her, “You just changed my life.”
One user said despite reading the instructions, they must’ve glossed over the stretching portion. “I’ve read the instructions before and never read stretch what,” they said.
This appears to have been a common occurrence. “Mmm idk I swear I’ve read over those instructions so many times and never read ‘stretch’ no way that must be new I feel crazy lol,” another wrote.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Crest and Juanita via email for further comment.
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