Natural Teeth Whitening
There are a handful of safe, and natural ways to whiten your teeth, that don’t involve a visit to the dentist. These methods have been around for centuries, and are just as effective then as they are now. But not many people use the natural teeth whitening methods in the United States. Perhaps it’s because of the quick-fix nature of our culture, and commercials about laser teeth whitening.
But in tough economic times, and with the growing popularity of “organic” related foods, clothes and lifestyles, natural teeth whitening may be making another breakthrough.
Understanding the basics of how your teeth become discolored, may illuminate how things have the reverse effect. Coffee, tea, dark drinks and food, will darken your teeth. Any prolonged exposure to a dark chemical will understandably stain something. Well, lemon juice, baking soda, and wood ash will lighten your teeth just the same.
It’s not just the color of the chemicals or ingredients that help reverse the negative affects of stains. It is also the chemicals themselves. Lemon juice, however, has it’s benefits and it’s problems as well. Lemon juice contains a high level of citric acid which eats at the enamel on your teeth. This is good in the sense that it removes stains fairly quickly, by eating away at the top layers of the tooth, but it’s bad in the sense that it eats away at the top layers of the tooth. You need calcium on your teeth in order to have healthy ones, and lemon juice is no good for calcium based enamels.
Some individuals use strawberries, mashed into a paste, and then brushed with them. This has a very similar effect on your teeth to the lemon juice method. However, this strawberry toothpaste version tastes much better. Crunchy vegetables that don’t contain a lot of nasty sugars and staining colors can help to brush away stains on the outer surface of your teeth. Plus, eating crunchy vegetables is good for your diet as well. So this method is a win-win.
Simple baking soda has been in existence for a very long time and can effectively clean and polish your teeth if you brush with it. Many toothpastes contain high amounts of baking soda, but some people like to just use baking soda as their primary teeth cleaning experience. Baking soda also helps to eliminate bacteria that can cause damage to your teeth. The only problem with baking soda is that it can make your gums sensitive if you brush to roughly on them. So when brushing around the gum area, make sure you do so in a gentle fashion.
Most over the counter and professional methods of teeth whitening contain a lot of peroxide. You don’t have to buy those expensive products to use peroxide though. You can purchase it in liquid form, and just rinse your mouth with it to have a similar effect on your teeth. Peroxide sold in stores will not be as concentrated as the peroxide in professional teeth whiteners, so it will take longer to have the same effect.