The Hazards Of Fruit For Whitening Teeth At Home
Many people reject commercial products that aim to whiten the teeth, in favor of natural at home teeth whitening methods. And one of the natural alternatives most often mentioned is to use lemons, rubbing the peel across the teeth or drinking lemon juice with a bit of salt, or to mash up some strawberries and actually brush with them. Many people who advocate the use of fruits in this way often say they see noticeable tooth whitening within a few days. Yet despite their supposedly healthy qualities, these fruits still may not turn out to be the best solution.
The most effective use of fruit for dental whitening appears, at first, to be provided by lemons, whether using the juice as a mouthwash or rubbing the peel directly on the teeth. Yet what the citric acid actually does is pull calcium out of the enamel. This makes the tooth appear whiter, for a while, because calcium is one of the things that adds a darker tinge to the color. But losing calcium eventually makes the enamel thinner, weakening the teeth. As an at home teeth whitening method, lemons look promising at first, but could produce devastating effects in the end.
Are strawberries any more effective as a homemade tooth whitener? Not really. Its seeds are abrasive and can scour and harm your teeth, and the acid may have much the same effect as lemons. In actual fact, the acid contained in strawberries in fact softens the enamel. That’s why it’s suggested that a person will want to wait twenty minutes after eating them before brushing the teeth, to give the saliva an opportunity to restock the minerals in the enamel. Using strawberries themselves to clean your teeth, particularly habitually, might be not the best way of whitening your teeth.
One should remember that most tooth color comes from the yellowish dentin inside, beneath the translucent enamel. So using an at home teeth whitening method that in fact erodes the enamel, and gradually reveals more of the dentin, means that rather than ending up with white teeth, they could produce teeth that are ultimately more yellow than before.
The truth is, with most of your teeth’s color dependent on the dentin, it might not truly be practical to make teeth much whiter than they were to start with. The more important mission is to keep maintain the health of your teeth, and a continual treatment of either lemons or strawberries is not likely to achieve that goal.
Teeth whitening products and procedures have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. That’s because many people realize that a whiter smile is a relatively easy way to look younger and more attractive. From cosmetic teeth bleaching to whitening strips, find out more about the options at the Teeth Bleaching site.
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