Teeth Whitening on the Cheap
Jun 29th, 2010
Drinking coffee in the morning, diet coke in the afternoon and red wine at night is not exactly a recipe for gleaming white teeth and since I’m not real big on the whole brown tooth look bleaching my teeth has become a necessity over the years. I absolutely refuse to pay the $400 to go get this done professionally so I have used a variety of over-the-counter products. Some have worked while others have been a complete waste of money. I am so not a fan of Crest White Strips. Recently, though, I came across some natural teeth whitening remedies that run the gamut of ‘no freaking way’ to ‘let’s give it a go.’ Here they are:
“No freaking way”
- Rubbing the bark of walnut tree on your teeth. Uh, no.
- Brushing your teeth with hard wood ash. Where do I even get this? From a fire pit?
- On aluminum foil spread a paste made from toothpaste and baking soda and cover the teeth with the aluminum foil. Leave it for an hour. Really, an hour?!
“Hmmm….May-be”
- make a paste of baking soda and strawberries and apply to teeth with brush and leave on for 5 minutes. The key ingredient here is malic acid, which acts as an astringent to remove surface discoloration. Combined with baking powder, strawberries become a natural tooth-cleanser. Easy enough, I have strawberries and baking soda on hand. We’ll see.
“Let’s give it a go”
- Pull out that old brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide. If you are like me, you probably have several bottles lurking in closet corners or under the sink. Make sure it’s only 3% solution (which most are at the drugstore). After you brush, rinse with hydrogen peroxide for 30 seconds. It brightens the teeth over time, fights mouth bacteria and helps heal canker sores. Wow, who knew it had so many uses? It kind of tastes like non-flavored Listerine but not quite as potent. Interestingly enough, it’s also one of the key ingredients in most of the store bought products. Try it.
Happy whitening!
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Written by Lea Barlow • 1 Comment
brian Mon, Sep 5, 12:56pm