Washington, Jan 30 (ANI): Here's a news alert for people planning to get a Tom Cruise-like pearl-white smile: don't get tricked by UV light-enhanced tooth bleaching, for it might prove dangerous for your eyes and skin.

That's the conclusion of a new study, which found that the light treatment gives absolutely no benefit over bleaching without UV, and damages skin and eyes up to four times as much as sunbathing.

It was found that one lamp actually gave four times the level of radiation exposure by sunbathing in Hyde Park for a midsummer's afternoonLead author Ellen Bruzell of the Nordic Institute of Dental Materials said that just like sunbathing, fair-skinned or light-sensitive people are at even greater risk from the damage.

Bruzell also found that bleaching damaged teeth, as she observed more exposed grooves on the enamel surface of bleached teeth than on unbleached teeth. These grooves make the teeth more vulnerable to mechanical stress.

Tooth bleaching is one of the most popular cosmetic dental treatments available, which normally makes use of hydrogen peroxide as a bleaching agent, which remove stains such as those from red wine, tea and coffee, and smoking.

And it has been claimed that UV light is can further activate the oxidation process, improving bleaching efficiency.

Howeverm the researchers in the new study have said that there is very little substantive evidence to support this claim, and their new study finds no benefit to using UV light.

The study is published in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal, Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences. (ANI)