From baking soda to brushing teeth with banana peel
Banana peel, baking soda, strawberries, coconut oil and even apple cider vinegar — Eurovaistinė pharmacist Fausta Barisevičienė has heard of all these. She says that, in order to whiten their teeth, people often look for whitening toothpaste or whitening strips, but few are interested in the health of their teeth and few realise that they already naturally have teeth of normal whiteness.
“At the pharmacies we get quite a few questions about toothpastes that would help whiten teeth. Customers also share that they’ve already tried more than one method to achieve the desired result at home. Unfortunately, we often have to disappoint patients by explaining that there are no miracle whitening products — what matters most is proper oral hygiene,” Fausta Barisevičienė says of consultations at the pharmacies.
According to dentist Gintarė Žmuidinavičienė, every person’s teeth are genetically programmed to be only a certain level of white, and whitening toothpaste helps achieve a lighter shade because it cleans the tooth properly, but it doesn’t change its natural shade: “There is a tooth-whiteness scale and we are all born with a different tooth shade, which depends on the thickness of the enamel. That means no matter how much we whiten our teeth, they will never reach a lighter shade than what we are genetically given. Still, it’s often enough to clean the tooth well and choose the right products, and the shade already looks much lighter. That’s exactly the effect whitening toothpastes give us,” the dentist says.
Home remedies — do they help or do even more harm?
Hearing about the home remedies people use, the dentist says their effectiveness is unlikely because chemically they don’t affect the tissue itself, and on top of that they can do harm: „Home remedies, such as baking soda, are rough. They clean off the plaque, but they don’t whiten the tooth structure — on the contrary, the scrubbing thins the enamel. Because of this, the inner tissue, the dentin, which is yellowish, shines through, and pigments accumulate more on the surface — the reverse reaction takes place,“ says G. Žmuidinavičienė. The pharmacist, adding to the dentist, points out that some remedies may not only fail to whiten the teeth but can also cause side effects to your health: „When you rinse your mouth with apple cider vinegar, there’s a chance of swallowing some and irritating the throat and digestive tract. For people with sensitive skin, coconut oil can irritate the skin around the mouth or lips, and swallowing baking soda can cause digestive tract problems. By using these products improperly we can cause damage to teeth and gums, and disturb the taste receptors temporarily or permanently,“ F. Barisevičienė says.
Are we choosing the dentist’s chair or the right toothpaste?
Talking about teeth whitening, dentist Gintarė explains that laser teeth whitening procedures are effective because they act on the tooth chemically: “There are special substances which, when activated by the laser light, act on the tooth chemically and whiten it,” dentist G. Žmuidinavičienė says.
According to pharmacist F. Barisevičienė, no toothpaste works on this principle, but it may contain certain elements that lighten the teeth. To remove plaque, you should pay attention to the paste’s abrasivity (expressed as RDA), and to whiten the tooth — check whether the paste contains peroxide. That said, although the peroxide in teeth whitening products can whiten the teeth, it can, among other things, cause tooth sensitivity and damage the enamel, so the products should be chosen and used with care.
Both the pharmacist and the dentist confirm that before any procedure it would be sensible to consult a specialist who would assess the condition of the teeth and say what products can be used and whether the procedure can be done at all.
Depending on the situation, the specialist can recommend the abrasivity level of toothpaste to choose so that it cleans plaque and the teeth look lighter, while not damaging them. The specialist can advise how much and how often the product should be used, because using even products with proven effectiveness without restraint can pose risks to the teeth and to health.
Source: https://www.tv3.lt/naujiena/gyvenimas/akinanti-sypsena-namu-salygomis-galime-tai-pasiekti-ar-vaikomes-neimanomo-n1261986
