How to Whiten Teeth at Home
Getting rid of yellow teeth doesn’t require much effort if you exercise consistent, effective dental hygiene habits. In fact, you can easily whiten your teeth at home. Consider these options to get a whiter smile in the comfort of your home.
Oil Pulling
This corrosion-free practice is a natural means of detoxifying your mouth and inhibiting the spread of stain-causing bacteria. It’s a good solution if you have tooth sensitivity.
How can I make my teeth whiter naturally? Practice oil pulling every day. Put a tablespoon of coconut oil into your mouth and swish it around for 5-20 minutes, rigorously moving it between your teeth to remove food particles and bacteria. Make sure you don’t swallow the oil! Repeat this practice every morning before you eat breakfast or brush your teeth.
How is oil pulling different from using a mouthwash? Most mouthwashes — especially astringent ones that contain alcohol — destroy all the bacteria in your mouth, good and bad. This actually causes more harm to your mouth than good.
Natural oils like coconut oil are natural anti-inflammatories containing antioxidant compounds. They activate salivary enzymes to attract the toxins that create plaque, which you can then expel by spitting. In fact, research shows that oil pulling for even one week reduces the presence of Streptococcus mutans, which causes cavities and black tooth stains.
Hydrogen Peroxide
For many years, hydrogen peroxide has been the go-to home whitening method in the dental industry. However, now that we understand more about the oral microbiome, you should know the risks of using hydrogen peroxide as a whitening technique.
Hydrogen peroxide is a bleaching agent that is very effective at eliminating bacteria, which is why it’s used for topical first-aid treatments. But your oral health relies on millions of good bacteria, so you don’t want to wipe them all out. This is a fundamental principle of biomimetic dentistry.
Using highly diluted hydrogen peroxide does remove surface-level stains from your enamel. However, research shows that even low concentrations can alter tooth enamel. It’s proven that natural whitening techniques erode the enamel far less than products like hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide do.
Because of this, hydrogen peroxide is a whitening technique that comes with a caution — only use at a low concentration (5%). It’s not a healthy solution for quick, same-day whitening.
Baking Soda
Baking soda is a mild abrasive and is effective at gently polishing the surface of the tooth. There’s overwhelming proof that brushing your teeth with baking soda reduces plaque and whitens teeth. Plus, research shows that this is safe on the enamel.
To use baking soda, form a paste with one part baking soda to two parts water, and smear it over the dental surface with a toothbrush. Brush gently with a soft-bristled brush before rinsing. You can do this a few times per week.
Fruits and Vegetables
While some fruits and vegetables — like cherries and pomegranates — stain your teeth, others can actually whiten your teeth naturally and strengthen them.
Organic foods like pineapple and mango that contain enzymes like papain and bromelain can help keep your teeth healthy. These enzymes dissolve the protein film on your teeth that plaque-causing bacteria adhere to and create stains. Even toothpaste containing these fruit-based enzymes significantly removes surface stains.
It’s another natural way to have whiter teeth and help prevent gum disease. As a bonus, eating foods rich in digestive enzymes benefits your whole body via the mouth-body connection.
Milk
Milk indeed makes our teeth stronger — it also helps whiten them.
In addition to providing calcium, milk contains casein. This protein compels calcium phosphates to repair enamel and even prevents plaque. One study found that casein helps prevent the staining tannins of tea from adhering to teeth by binding to polyphenols.
Whitening Toothpaste
Many whitening toothpastes use baking soda, which removes yellow stains from teeth. Simply use whitening toothpaste the same way you use normal toothpaste. Squeeze a bit onto your toothbrush and brush as usual to gradually remove stains.
Whitening Kits and Whitening Strips
Many use home teeth whitening products for effective stain removal. Although these over-the-counter products differ in how they’re applied to the dental surface, they use the same primary ingredient: hydrogen peroxide.
A combination of H2O2 and other ingredients gradually removes extrinsic stains over a week or a month of application. Whitening kits come in a whitening gel form, while whitening strips are thin films applied to the teeth.
