Q: What’s a natural way to whiten my teeth?
A: I’m going to take an informal poll here. Put up your hand if you’ve whitened your teeth with some sort of gel/paste/tray/strips. If your arms are still by your side, welcome to the ever-shrinking Society of Yellow Teethers.
It’s a club my eight-year-old niece says I belong to, but what does she know? She hasn’t had enough coffee or red wine to judge.
Of course, these days everyone seems to have whitened a shade or two. In the past, it was just professionally capped celebrities who flashed impossibly white pearls every time they mugged for the camera. Now, unless your teeth are already the colour of a sheet of photocopy paper, your dentist has probably tried to upsell you on a lightening procedure.
Most of the at-home whitening systems on the market get their Wonder Woman white power from carbamide peroxide, hydrogen peroxide and/or sodium hydroxide. All three are corrosive at higher concentrations (the last one is actually used in drain clearing), and any whitening system that contains any of them is very likely to increase tooth sensitivity and irritate your gums while you’re using it.
Some, in combo with pro light treatments, have caused burns and sores.
There are still no good long-term studies giving us a clear picture of the impact of using whiteners year after year. All I can say for sure is that pregnant and lactating women, kids under 16 and those with gum disease, eroded enamel or untreated cavities are advised to stay away from whiteners.
Your safest bets, free of the bleaches, petrochemicals, carcinogenic saccharin, artificial flavours, even mildly estrogenic parabens and dodgy alumina found in many over-the-counter dental whitening products, are at your local health store.
I won’t lie and tell you they offer the same brightening power you get from a tray or a strip, but you will find toothpastes that lighten with mild abrasives like hydrated silica.
Kiss My Face Whitening is a good example, as is my fave, Jason’s PowerSmile Whitening, which also uses calcium carbonate and bamboo powder.
As I said, don’t expect a blinding reflection in the mirror, but both products do take a little of the tarnish off your teeth. In fact, lots of run-of-the-mill Crest- and Colgate-style whitening toothpastes get their power from silica, but those are loaded with chemical fillers.
You can also take the DIY route, like, say, baking soda, which, as your grandpa will tell you, is a decent abrasive whitener. But brushing the powder straight onto your teeth can cause major irritation and long-term enamel erosion. Make sure it’s well diluted in a homemade paste with vegetable glycerin and some dissolved xylitol as your cavity-fighting sweetener.
The kitchen-cupboard options don’t end there. You can try cutting the top off a strawberry and rubbing it on your teeth, though I’d suggest you wait till strawberries are in season and get them local and organic. It’s not worth flying in jumbo pesticide-laced berries from California in an unrecyclable box.
The inside of an orange peel (which happens to be inherently packaging-free) also works. Again, stick to the organic kind to avoid gumming a mouthful of pesticides. Just make sure to rinse and brush after any homemade teeth-lightening, and use these techniques infrequently, since they’ll erode your enamel.
Need I remind you that enamel doesn’t grow back, and enamel erosion will make enjoying things like, oh, ice cream or coffee, seriously uncomfortable? Unless that sounds enticing, I’d steer clear of enamel-busting lemon remedies, too.
Regardless of whether you settle on a pro job or an orange peel, teeth whitening is never permanent. Keep swilling black tea and Bordeaux and you’ll be daydreaming of dental strips in as little as a month.
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