How Do DIY Whitening Remedies Harm Your Natural Teeth?

You may want whiter looking teeth, but have you wondered what popular natural remedies could be doing to your oral health? Unfortunately, many remedies designed to whiten teeth actually harm them. Read on to discover how DIY whitening remedies harm your teeth.

Harmful Teeth Whitening Home Remedies to Avoid

1) Lemon juice

While lemon juice is noted for bleaching fabric and hair, it is unsuitable for teeth. Lemon juice is a concentrated form of citric acid. Our tooth enamel, which protects our teeth from decay, is significantly eroded by acid. If you apply lemon juice directly to your teeth, expect rapid enamel loss followed by significant tooth decay and even tooth loss.

2) Baking soda

While baking soda is added to some scaling toothpaste in controlled quantities, it is actually a very powerful abrasive. When you apply baking soda on your teeth, you’re stripping away enamel and exposing the dentine, making your teeth appear yellower and more sensitive in the long run.

3) Brushing with strawberries

Strawberries are simply an acidic fruit which does nothing but eat away at your precious enamel. As you know, enamel protects teeth from decay, so if you’re using strawberries to brush your teeth, you can expect plenty of unsightly holes in your future.

4) Oil pulling

Oil pulling is popular, but there is no proof of it whitening teeth. Perhaps the oral improvement users experience is due to a greater focus on teeth, as oil pullers often stick to a dedicated post-pulling brushing regime? Other oil pullers neglect their brushing thinking oil pulling is a cure-all – leading to more cavities and duller looking teeth.

5) Brushing teeth with salt

Like baking soda, salt is highly abrasive which will remove your valuable enamel as well as any part of your gums and lips which come into contact with the substance. Salt might leave your teeth appearing brighter, but they will be extremely unhealthy and prone to damage in the long run.

6) Food grade hydrogen peroxide

This method is one of the worst things you can do to your teeth. Rather than producing whitening results, hydrogen peroxide will work hard to slough off your soft tissue surrounding your teeth. You can also expect damage to your tongue, the roof of your mouth, and you can even be poisoned by it.

7) Apple cider vinegar

Apple cider vinegar is an acidic substance that should not come into direct contact with your teeth. While some natural dental advocates swear by apple cider vinegar, it does little more than aggravate sensitive gums as well as strip away precious enamel.

8) Activated charcoal

Activated charcoal is the latest fad in natural tooth whitening, but is safe for your teeth? Unfortunately, activated charcoal is a harsh abrasive and aggressive use of it may leads to dental erosion and decay. Some people may notice their teeth becoming white initially, but over time that whiteness will also go away, and a dark blackish look will arrive in its place. Relative Dentin Abrasivity can help you measure abrasiveness for all FDA approved dental products.

Why is it risky to use home kits and salon-based teeth whitening?

While home-based whitening kits provide ineffective concentrations of bleach, many users forget they are wearing the device, resulting in bleach burns, painful loss of gum tissue, white spots on teeth, uneven bleaching, no bleaching at all, enamel loss, and even oral cancer.

Salon-based teeth whitening is problematic because workers lack dental training and so they use higher concentrations of bleach which increase the chances of complications, such as permanent enamel loss, significant tissue damage and increased tooth sensitivity. Moreover, aggressive bleaching can chemically react with composite restorations, glass ionomer cements, sealants, and ceramic crowns, thus reducing their stability.

Professional tooth whitening is the only safe way to whiten your teeth. As well as caring for your oral health, your dentist will care for your gums by ensuring they are free of bleaching agent. Your treatment will be tailored to your needs, with lower intensity options on offer for sensitive teeth and it will be timed to ensure your teeth are not overexposed. And if you opt for a dentist-approved professional teeth whitening kit, your dentist will match you to an industry-approved product that meets your needs.

Are you ready to get white teeth while also maintaining perfect oral health? Your teeth should last you a lifetime, make a wise investment by opting for a dentist offering safe and professional teeth whitening treatments.

Author Bio:

Oatlands Dental Lounge, committed to making every patient’s visit a comfortable and personalised as possible. We consider our dental team, our patients and their families to be valuable elements – when you become part of the Oatlands Dental Lounge family, you become a very important person!