The 6-minute video that made me fact check my own dentist's ad

I saw a local dental clinic in Austin claim their whitening system was 'FDA approved' for 6 minutes on TV, then found the FDA page listing it as cleared for sensitivity only. I called them out in a review and they deleted my post, so now I'm wondering, how do you all handle businesses that bend claims when it's not a news outlet pushing it?

2 comments

2 Comments

iris_schmidt2d ago

Dude, that reminds me of the time I bought this "organic" face scrub because the label had a picture of a lemon on it, and it turned out it had more chemicals than my pool. I feel you on the whole word-twisting thing, but honestly, people just see "FDA" and stop reading. I'd be more mad about the deletion than the ad itself, that's just shady.

evan5432d ago

I get why you're annoyed, but here's the thing... "cleared" and "approved" are basically the same thing to most people. FDA clearance for sensitivity means the product and its claims about sensitivity have been checked out, not that it whitens. That's a big difference, sure, but the word "approved" gets thrown around for everything from toothpaste to medical devices, and honestly, most folks don't know the sliver of difference. I'm not saying the dentist is totally in the right here, but calling them out on a technicality and then getting deleted, that's just business as usual. They're not a news outlet, they're a business trying to sell a service, and they're going to use the best words that sound true enough. I'd just let it go and move on, maybe mention it in person to a friend if you wanna warn them off, but fighting an ad claim review is a losing game.