Even if you had pearly whites at one time, your teeth naturally lose their luster with age. No matter what you eat, how often you brush and floss, or how much money you spend on whitening strips or custom trays, that beautiful sheen will eventually fade away.
But all is not lost! There are a variety of at-home solutions that can get your teeth sparkling white again. This article describes ways to whiten your teeth at home that work, and some popular ones people subscribe to that don’t.
Tap Into the Whitening Power of Strawberries
Here’s an approach to tooth whitening that starts in the kitchen. You may have heard that rubbing strawberries against your teeth or mashing strawberries to create a paste, and brushing your teeth with it, will whiten them. Strawberries are a nutrient-dense fruit and loaded with antioxidants too. They also contain malic acid and citric acid. The idea is that these weak acids in strawberries help remove surface stains and brighten your teeth. But weak acids, like malic and citric, don’t penetrate deeply enough to change the color of your teeth. Plus, it’s best to avoid placing acids on your teeth anyway, since it can wear away tooth enamel.
Verdict: Minimally effective, although this method may brighten your teeth slightly short-term.
Brush with Hydrogen Peroxide
Another popular method people use at home to whiten their teeth is brushing with a hydrogen peroxide solution. It makes sense because the whitening kits dentists offer to whiten teeth contain hydrogen peroxide, a bleaching agent. The problem is the hydrogen peroxide you buy at the drug store is too weak. It doesn’t have enough bleaching action to whiten your teeth. Plus, when you get a tooth whitening treatment at a dentist’s, they use light to increase the bleaching action. What you can accomplish with a diluted form of hydrogen peroxide at home is minimal.
Verdict: Not effective, as the hydrogen peroxide concentration you buy in bottles at the drugstore is not concentrated enough to lighten your teeth.
Brush with Baking Soda
Another popular method for brightening is brushing with baking soda. This is a tooth whitening approach people have used for many years. Baking soda is effective for removing stubborn tooth stains due to its gritty texture, but it doesn’t have the capacity to bleach your teeth to a lighter shade. If stains cause your teeth to look dull, you’ll get some benefit from brushing with baking soda, but if your teeth are naturally dull or yellow, you’ll get minimal benefits.
Verdict: A good stain-removing treatment, but baking soda won’t bleach your teeth. Because it remains stains and makes your teeth look brighter, it’s in the plus column.
Brush with Activated Charcoal
Brushing with activated charcoal is another popular method for brightening teeth. Although brushing with charcoal can make your teeth look brighter, over time, the abrasive nature of charcoal can wear down your tooth enamel. As your tooth enamel thins, the dentin underneath becomes more visible, and your teeth look dull and yellow. You might get some brightening benefits with this method short-term, but end up with yellow teeth longer-term from enamel breakdown. In that case, the cons outweigh the pros.
Verdict: Like baking soda, brushing with activated charcoal will brighten your teeth, but it’s not a good option, as it damages tooth enamel over time.
Use a Home Tooth Whitening Kit
Professional whitening kits are available over the counter and contain peroxide gel or carbamide peroxide gel, which you apply to your teeth for 15 minutes before rinsing with water. There are also professional tooth whitening kits you can get from a dentist that contain a higher concentration of peroxide. A syringe that dispenses the peroxide into a mouth tray is included in these kits. This is an effective method of bleaching, but if you get a custom tray made for your teeth and a dentist’s office, it can be expensive.
Before starting any of the home-bleaching methods, schedule a consultation with your dentist to ensure you don’t have any underlying dental issues that would make using peroxide riskier. Your dentist can also give you recommendations based on the condition of your teeth and gums at the time of your appointment.
The tooth whitening process can take from one to three months to complete, depending on how white you want your teeth to be and how often you perform the bleaching process.
Verdict: A highly effective method for whitening your teeth. Professional dental treatments in a dentist’s office are most effective, but you can also get benefits with at-home whitening kits.
The Bottom Line
Make no mistake, professional teeth whitening is the best option, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get some whitening benefits at home. Now you know what works and what doesn’t.