National Advertising Division Recommends Oral Essentials Discontinue “Enamel Safe” Claim for Lumineux Whitening Mouthwash

New York, NY – January 24, 2025 – In a Fast-Track SWIFT challenge brought by oral care competitor GuruNanda LLC, BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division recommended that Oral Essentials, Inc. discontinue the claim that its Lumineux Whitening Mouthwash is “Enamel Safe.”

Fast-Track SWIFT is an expedited process designed for single-issue advertising cases brought to the National Advertising Division (NAD). At issue was whether Oral Essentials had a reasonable basis to claim that its Lumineux Whitening Mouthwash is “Enamel Safe.” 

The challenged claim appeared on the Lumineux Whitening Mouthwash label and in other advertising. In some iterations the “enamel safe” claim appears close to a “clinically proven” claim, unconnected to any specific claim in the advertising. Oral Essentials relied on the results of a Scanning Electron Microsopy (SEM) study on the effects of the use of Lumineux Whitening Mouthwash on enamel tooth chips after being treated in the manner instructed on the packaging. 

NAD found that Oral Essentials’ evidence did not support the unqualified safety claim and noted that while the 30-day SEM study has a number of hallmarks of a well-controlled study and did not indicate any negative effect on the enamel samples studied, it was not a good fit for the challenged unqualified “Enamel Safe” claim, which NAD found reasonably conveys a message that daily use of the product will have no negative impact on enamel. 

Therefore, NAD recommended that Oral Essentials discontinue the challenged “Enamel Safe” claim. NAD noted that nothing in its decision precludes Oral Essentials from making other truthful and non-misleading claims regarding the safety of its Lumineux Whitening Mouthwash, including claims relating to the product’s effect on enamel.

In its advertiser statement, Oral Essentials stated that “while strongly disagreeing with NAD’s decision, as a supporter of the advertising industry’s system of voluntary self-regulation, Oral Essentials will follow NAD’s recommendation.”

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