Teeth Whitening Home Remedies:
Whitening Teeth with Lemon Juice
Procedure: Brushing teeth with lemon juice
Lemon juice is an acid and can harm your teeth. You may end up with a LOT of cavities and irreparably damaged tooth enamel. The reason that lemon juice ‘works’ is that it causes the teeth to lose calcium (which gives teeth some of their off-white color). Calcium is a major component of healthy teeth, and once it is lost, your teeth become very susceptible to decay. DO NOT use lemon juice for whitening.
Whitening Teeth with Wood Ash
Procedure: Brushing teeth using wood ash (i.e. from your fireplace)
The reason wood ash whitens your teeth is because it contains potassium hydroxide (aka lye). However, only hard wood ash contains significant concentrations of potassium hydroxide. Soft wood ash does not. Before lye was available commercially, soap was made by leeching the potassium hydroxide from hard wood ash and then combining it with tallow (rendered animal fat). You may want to exercise caution when using hard wood ash too often as a tooth whitening agent. The harshness of the potassium hydroxide could significantly damage your teeth over time.
Whitening Teeth with Strawberries
Procedure: Brushing teeth using mashed strawberries
It is not advisable to brush your teeth with strawberries. The sugar and acid in the strawberry will harm your teeth more than it will help if you don’t brush your teeth after.
If you eat an acid fruit such as strawberry or any other healthy but acidic food such as yoghurt, I would advise that you wait at least 20min to brush your teeth since the acid softens the enamel and you would be brushing some enamel away if you brush immediately. After 20 minutes the saliva would have ‘buffered’ the acid on the teeth and would be OK to brush and floss.
Whitening Teeth with Baking Soda
Procedure: Using Baking Soda with toothpaste while brushing
Baking Soda won’t bleach your teeth, but it will help get plaque off and make them shine. Be warned that Baking Soda is an abrasive and if you use it too much, the enamel on your teeth can get damaged.
Whitening teeth with Hydrogen Peroxide:
Studies on humans repeatedly using oral health products containing hydrogen peroxide have shown that:
* using mouth rinses or mouth washes that contain up to 1.5% hydrogen peroxide once or twice daily for up to 2 years had no adverse effects on the inside of the mouth, gums or tongue and can even improve gum health significantly.
However, one study reported discoloration of the inner lining of the mouth and the tongue when used 4 times daily for 5 weeks.
* adults who brushed with a toothpaste containing 0.87% hydrogen peroxide twice a day for 6 months showed no differences in gum health
* rinses containing 3% hydrogen peroxide used 3 to 5 times per day can cause irritation in people with a previous mouth injury; and
* rinsing and brushing 2 to 3 times daily with products containing more than 6% hydrogen peroxide can affect the tongue and gums in some healthy people.
There are studies being conducted upon hydrogen peroxide and DNA damage, cancer, reproductive disorders, etc.