4 Natural Ways To Whiten Your Teeth At Home

Gourmandize

Your smile is one of the first things people notice. But if you've indulged in coffee, soda, red wine, or cigarettes, your pearly whites are probably not so white anymore. 

Restoring your teeth to their original gleam can be daunting. Professional treatments can be prohibitively expensive, while a lot of popular, over-the-counter whitening products contain harsh chemicals and abrasives that can harm your teeth. 

So before you dive into to more extreme measures, here are some natural, gentle ways to get rid of stains and get whiter teeth.

Baking Soda and Lemon

Baking soda (or sodium bicarbonate) has long been touted as a natural tooth whitener. It's a mild abrasive, so it works to get rid of surface stains and return your teeth to a lighter shade. Lemon is a natural bleach (of sorts), and can be used (in moderation) to whiten teeth. 

Combine the two into a paste, and you have a gentle teeth whitening solution!

Activated Charcoal

Activated charcoal is highly porous, highly absorbent powder that acts as a mild abrasive and can lift stains from the surface of your teeth. The process is simple: just break open a capsule, mix with water, and use the resulting paste to brush your teeth normally. 

A word of caution: health and wellness bloggers swear by activated charcoal, but its effects haven't been studied in depth. Use in moderation and pay attention to how your teeth are feeling in order not to overdo it. 

Miswak

How did people clean their teeth before the toothbrush? Twigs.

Miswak, teeth cleaning twigs made from the salvadora persica tree, have been used for 7,000 years to keep teeth healthy and pearly white. They're common, cheap, have studied medicinal properties, and have been scientifically proven to improve oral health.

They're still widely used across many parts of the globe, including the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, India, and Southeast Asia — and now they're becoming trendy in the U.S. as well.

Bentonite Clay

Bentonite clay is made from aged volcanic ash, and is named after the volcano-studded Wyoming town from which it hails: Fort Benton.

It has similar properties to activated charcoal, and is becoming an increasingly popular teeth whitening solution. You can either gargle it with water, or mix it with water to form a natural toothpaste. 

Do you have any natural teeth-whitening solutions? Tell us in the comments!

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