A great smile can brighten up a whole room. Of course, if your pearly whites are more grungy yellows or gunky browns, that doesn’t happen as effectively. There are a lot of different ways to make teeth whiter.
Searching online can glean a lot of different tips and suggestions on how to whiten those teeth. Of course, since it’s the internet, and not all of the sources online are particularly reliable, you’ll have to separate the grain from the chaff.
There are a lot of different ingredients that you can use to whiten up your teeth, but sometimes, you have to ask, does xylitol whiten teeth? Does hydrogen peroxide whiten teeth? Does baking soda whiten teeth? It seems, (from my research) that they all do, to a certain degree.
A bit of double-checking and poking around will present you with mixed results. Most of the time, the answer is yes, but the effects of each ingredient, as used as a tooth whitener, can vary between people and based on how you use it.
Xylitol is actually a kind of sugar alcohol, and it’s usually used as a sugar substitute. Usually, sweet things are associated with tooth decay, but before you toss this idea aside, xylitol is actually a kind of sugar that’s good for your teeth. It can kill off germs and prevent plaque and cavities from forming, and helps maintain the PH balance in your mouth. Changing the PH balance of your mouth to a healthier number, as xylitol helps to do, reduces enamel wear. This leads to whiter teeth because enamel wearing down exposes yellow dentin underneath.
Some toothpastes and chewing gums actually contain xylitol, but the question remains: does xylitol whiten teeth? In a nutshell, yes. However, dental whitening isn’t xylitol’s main dental care function. It’s more of a side-effect of the fact that with xylitol, your teeth actually get healthier.
Hydrogen peroxide, on the other hand, is one of the active ingredients in many bleaching gels sold in drugstores and used in dentists’ offices. It’s also an ingredient used in a lot of different whitening toothpastes.
If anyone asks, does hydrogen peroxide whiten teeth? The answer would definitely be yes, but if you want to make a homemade teeth whitening solution using hydrogen peroxide, stick with a low percentage. If you want a really strong bleaching solution it might be best to consult a dentist or another professional for any safety or medical concerns.
Some people feel the best thing to use for DIY dental whitening would definitely be baking soda. It’s readily available in just about any grocery or drug store, it has a lot of different uses, and you’re not likely to get chemical burns on your gums the way you might if you use high concentrations of hydrogen peroxide unsupervised.
Of course, one question that may be crossing your mind right now is, how exactly does baking soda whiten teeth? Baking soda doesn’t exactly change the color of teeth, as much as it scrubs your teeth and gets some of those tougher stains and plaque out. It can be a bit abrasive though, so it’s best to use baking soda only once or twice a month.
There are a lot of different methods of getting whiter teeth – you might want to try a safe, gentle and natural option before some of the harsher alternatives.
