HiSmile Review: Does It Work? New PAP+ Teeth Whitening Kit 2021

Introduction

This is an in-depth review of the hismile PAP+ teeth whitening kit. Does it live up to its billing as providing fast and effective results? We put it through its paces.

At Gadget Discovery Club, we’re constantly testing new and innovative gadgets in the health and fitness space, bringing you detailed and transparent reviews of the best products on the market, to help you upgrade your health and lifestyle.

I’m Neil Cumins, an award-winning writer and tech expert. I’ve had many years of orthodontic work, so dental work is something of a reluctant specialism.

This hismile review covers everything from packaging and presentation to before and after results and competitor products. But first, here’s a summary of the test findings…

Hismile review summary

Overall, this is an effective package, which comes beautifully presented and has plenty of Instagram appeal. However, you shouldn’t invest in hismile expecting it to transform yellowing teeth into a perfect Hollywood smile. It improved the colour of my teeth by several shades over a six-day treatment programme, as you can see in the photos below. However, this isn’t an instant-results product; the benefits revealed themselves over time rather than suddenly.

Read on for our full Hismile review, or use the links to jump to the relevant sections.

In this article…

• What’s in the Hismile box
• What is Hismile?
• How do you use the Hismile PAP+ Teeth Whitening Kit?
• Is Hismile effective?
• How long does Hismile take to work?
• How long does Hismile last?
• Hismile alternatives
• FAQs
• Hismile review summary

What’s in the Hismile box?

Nobody buys a product solely for its packaging, but there’s no denying that hismile comes beautifully presented. The crisp white minimalism of its box is reminiscent of Apple, with a pink-trimmed lid lifting up to reveal five main components:

1. A clear plastic mouth tray, large enough to fit almost any mouth.
2. An LED device which accelerates the whitening process.
3. Six individual pods, which are manually applied to the mouth tray.
4. An instruction booklet, with very simple treatment instructions and a 19-shade colour chart, extending from near-pure white to a deep nicotine beige.

Everything except the mouth tray is finished in matte white and the LED device is supplied with two 3V coin batteries, designed to last up to a year. Repeat customers could be whitening within moments of opening the packaging, which is impressive.

However, there’s no information on the instruction leaflet about how frequently to use the kit, and customer questions are often answered on social media rather than in the instruction manual.

What is Hismile?

The hismile is an all-in-one teeth whitening kit. Developed in Australia, it harnesses the principles of LED blue-light technology to tackle stains and discolouration. The accompanying product information claims it actually strengthens teeth, rather than increasing their sensitivity as other whitening kits are prone to do.

Reading the PAP+ formula leaflet included in each kit, pain receives almost as much coverage as discolouration. The risk of long-term discomfort is clearly an area hismile are sensitive about, if you’ll forgive the pun.

How do you use the Hismile Teeth Whitening Kit?

The instructions

The one-sentence instructions walk you through the process of getting started, applying the formula, starting the treatment and maintaining the device. You certainly don’t need to be tech-savvy to follow the programme. The mouth tray can be worn either way up, with a deep plastic ridge that clips onto the LED device, ensuring it won’t fall off mid-clean. This feels reassuringly robust.

Step 1 - Applying the gel

Each pod unscrews quite easily, before you apply the gel onto both sides of the mouth tray. It sticks in place when you turn the guard upside down, but some of the gel naturally gets stuck in the bulbous end of each pod, and you can't get it out. This is a definite design flaw, especially considering one set of six additional pods costs £40.

Top tip: If you store each pod upside-down in the packaging, that will encourage the paste to flow towards the cap, giving you the best chance of extracting a full treatment of gel.

The gel is marketed as tasteless, and it certainly doesn’t create a strong first impression as the pod is opened. However, there’s a fairly unpleasant plasticky aroma that lingers on your tastebuds even after rinsing your mouth out several times – more of a smell than a taste. While sitting with the mouth tray in place, every so often I'd feel the need to swallow, but doing so drew more of the gel into my mouth, creating a feeling reminiscent of having moulds taken at the orthodontist. This did get easier as the week progressed.

Step 2 - Wearing the mouth tray

The mouth tray is well-designed and fits comfortably into an average-sized mouth. You only need to have the mouth tray in place for ten minutes, which is an impressively short treatment period when you consider some rival products require overnight application. Even allowing time to set up the hismile and then rinse the mouth tray, this entire process can be completed in less than 15 minutes.

Top tip: Although it might seem counter-intuitive, put the mouth tray onto the LED device before applying paste, since the guard is a snug fit over the device and attempting to attach it with gel already on could get messy!

Step 3 - Rinse

Once the ten-minute timer is finished, the LED device beeps a couple of times and switches off the bright UV light that’s been radiating from it like a prop from a Marvel movie. Uncoupling the mouth tray takes a few seconds, after which it can be rinsed under a cold tap and returned to the packaging. You’re not supposed to eat or drink immediately after using the hismile kit, though rinsing your mouth out with water or mouthwash helps to remove the chemical aroma that tends to linger on your tastebuds.

Step 4 - Repeat

As the days went by, I found the process becoming quicker. Because there are no cords or cables to worry about (unlike a number of competitor products), it’s easy to read a magazine or browse your phone while the LED device counts down each ten-minute cycle.

The hismile instructions recommend cleaning your teeth for two minutes pre-cycle, which precludes cleaning them again afterwards – which might feel instinctive after sitting with gel on them. It may be worth investing in a plastic bottle with an adjustable nozzle, so you can squirt water into the corners of your month, rather than attempting to swill water around from the tap or from a glass.

Is the Hismile Teeth Whitening Kit effective?

The benefits gradually became more noticeable as the six-day treatment course progressed. There was no big reveal when I looked in the mirror, but then it would be unrealistic to expect one – not to mention potentially dangerous. I also experienced a small amount of gum bleeding on the first day, but this didn’t recur, and it’s not recognised as a common side-effect of such treatments.

As the course progressed, I noticed a gradual improvement in the colour of my teeth when comparing them against recent photos taken in like-for-like environments. That’s an important point, because your teeth have a different hue when viewed in artificial light (whether that be full spectrum or traditional halogen bulb) compared to natural daylight; even sunshine can affect their appearance.

By the time the course finished, I certainly felt more confident smiling at people. My lower teeth were considerably less white than the top teeth, but then they’re also considerably less visible. I suspect my overbite contributed to this imbalance. If you’re planning on using any form of home teeth whitening kit which relies on a reversible mouth tray, it may be a good idea to practice jutting out or retracting your lower jaw for short periods to align your teeth as closely as possible prior to commencing the programme.

It’s worth noting that on Trustpilot, as of May 2021, hismile scores a highly respectable 4.2 out of 5, across almost 14,000 reviews. Although these reviews also covered the toothpaste, as well as ancillary issues like customer support, there was a generally positive reaction towards the kit itself. Where people were neutral in their reviews, it was more because they didn’t notice as much of an improvement as they’d been expecting; I certainly didn’t see a dramatic difference after the first couple of applications.

Is Hismile safe?

Some whitening kits can be abrasive, and sensitivity is a common side-effect. Each kit uses a different combination of chemicals, and hismile have put their faith in phthalimidoperoxycaproic acid, or PAP to its friends. This active whitening ingredient is combined in hismile’s pods with two further chemicals. Potassium citrate is a powerful desensitising agent which aims to reverse the greater sensitivity potentially caused by whitening, soaking through the teeth to protect nerve endings. The other active component is hydroxyapatite – a remineralisation ingredient which also helps to strengthen tooth enamel and dentin to minimise the risk of sensitivity affecting your daily life post-whitening.

It’s worth noting that the mouth tray is flexible and soft, moulding around crooked teeth rather than placing pressure on them. There shouldn’t be any discomfort from retaining it for ten minutes, and it’s very unlikely that pressure applied during the whitening process would cause teeth to move perceptibly.

How long does Hismile take to work?

A single treatment can be enough to begin the process of reducing and reversing tooth discolouration, though you’ll need to complete the full course to really feel the full benefits. Hismile’s kit comes with six individual pods, intended to be used once per day, so allow a week for the full benefits to filter through.

How long does Hismile last?

Having just completed the course, I can’t personally confirm how long the benefits last. However, hismile suggest the whitening should last for anywhere between two weeks and three months in general – it’s not something you need to do the night before a job interview or immediately before a holiday.

It’s worth noting that dietary factors will influence how quickly your teeth revert to their natural colour. Fruit juices, cigarettes, red wine, curry and cola are among some of the most troublesome ingredients in terms of causing discolouration.

Hismile alternatives

The market for teeth whitening products has expanded in recent years, and there are dozens of competitor products on the market. One of the best known is manufactured by American brand SNOW, promising a whiter smile in less than ten minutes a day compared to hismile’s twelve. It provides four whitening serum wands and a medical-grade silicone mouthpiece with LED technology incorporated into it (rather than physically attached to it, as with hismile). The mouth tray needs to be plugged into a USB port on a smartphone or plug socket to work, which is quite different to the battery-powered approach taken by hismile.

Another company taking the plug-in approach to teeth whitening is GLO - an acronym of Guided Light Optics. Unlike SNOW’s offering, there’s a proprietary charging device, which has to be hand-held or attached to a supplied lanyard while the LED device works its magic for eight minutes. Rather than simply using LED light, this rechargeable USB power pack also generates a degree of heat, helping to apply the hydrogen peroxide gel. This is supplied in sufficient quantities to conduct 42 applications, which compares favourably to hismile’s six, and there’s even a lip care balm included.

You could also investigate treatment at your local dentist, where whitening products will have met the approval of official dental associations. This will be more expensive than a DIY home kit, and in truth, you’re unlikely to see significantly better results. Dentists may steer you towards whitening toothpaste, which can be bought from a variety of manufacturers and retailers. It won’t transform your tooth shade in isolation, but these special pastes can provide a useful top-up to a previous whitening programme.

Hismile review summary

The main takeaway from our hismile review is that this is one of the best teeth whitening kits on the market. It would make a great gift, since the packaging is beautiful and the equipment itself has clearly been designed with style in mind. Occasionally, those minimalist aesthetics come at the expense of practicality (the limited instructions and hard-to-empty pods, for instance), but there’s no denying its simplicity.

If you have a job interview in four days’ time and want to dazzle the panel with your smile, this probably isn’t the package for you. However, most people will prefer hismile’s gradual approach to whitening, which is less invasive in the short term and longer-lasting as a result. The lack of sensitivity caused by using the pods will come as a huge relief to anyone who’s ever winced their way through an ice cream or black coffee. And while this isn’t a cheap method of improving your teeth, it’s a convenient and practical alternative to having a more expensive (but chemically similar) process undertaken at the dentist.

Hismile Teeth Whitening Kit

£99

	Great Quality		Slower Results
	Simple		Not so cheap