Whiter shinier teeth. It’s the ever-elusive goal that so many people covet, yet not many are able to achieve – without professional help. With changes in the color of your teeth happening gradually and subtly, you might not even be aware of how yellow your teeth are!

Don’t worry, there are ways to prevent discoloration from happening, and we’ll be covering them in today’s article. 

At this point, we’d like to point out that some of these suggestions are at-home remedies without much research to support them, though there are circumstantial reports that support the efficacy of these treatments. 

If you want a safe and effective method to whiten your teeth, it’s always best to visit a tooth whitening professional and get their professional recommendation. 

Photo by Lesly Juarez on Unsplash

1.) Brush Your Teeth Regularly – AND Properly

Your first order of business is to make sure that your oral hygiene is absolutely perfect – that means brushing your teeth regularly and properly.

The absolute minimum is twice a day – once in the morning and once before you go to sleep – but feel free to brush even more than that.

If you’re the type to brush after every meal, however, you need to be more careful in choosing toothpaste. The formulation has to be gentle enough so as not to hurt the enamel, like BrilliantSmileTM WhiteningEVO Toothpaste. It’s a great addition to your oral care arsenal because it not only helps maintain white teeth by removing stains, but its prophylactic properties also ensure that your mouth is protected from plaque, cavities, and sensitivity. 

2.) Use Mouthwash with Hydrogen Peroxide

Mouthwash is another must-have for your oral care needs. It’s great for reducing bacteria buildup, freshening your breath, and removing stain-inducing germs. 

For best results, you may want to check out a mouthwash with hydrogen peroxide as one of its main ingredients. Hydrogen peroxide is a mild bleach that, research suggests, significantly whitens stained teeth as tooth shade remains significantly lighter when you use products with hydrogen peroxide than those without. 

As an added note, you may want to look at products without 2% nano-hydroxyapatite if you’re one to experience tooth sensitivity. 

3.) Gargle After Every Meal

Mouthwash works best after every meal, especially if you’re out at lunch without access to your toothbrush. A quick garage and floss with a toothpick will remove any food debris and minimize the effects of acid in your food and drinks while also washing away any sugar residue from that can of soda you had.

It’s the perfect option when you’re out and about without access to your oral hygiene kit. 

4.) Use Whitening Toothpaste

When you are at home, however, make sure you religiously brush your teeth with whitening toothpaste, like the ones available on our shop from Brilliant Smile. 

Whitening toothpaste contains various ingredients that are more than capable of removing stains. Some of the more popular ingredients include baking soda or activated charcoal, we’ll discuss the effects of the activated charcoal in a later section. 

Other than the abrasives that polish the teeth, peroxide and other chemicals are present to help break down or dissolve stains. 

Unfortunately, because these products can reduce your enamel, you don’t want to use them for more than a couple of weeks at a time. 

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

5.) Consider Activated Charcoal

Activated Charcoal is a product borne from natural substances, some may use coconut shells, olive peats, or even slow burned wood.

You might find tons of dental products that contain activated charcoal because of the popular claim that this ingredient is capable of removing even the toughest of tooth stains. 

There exists very little scientific evidence to back up these claims. However, there are anecdotal reports that claim the abrasive texture of activated charcoal has the same effect as baking soda. They might whiten teeth but they also wear down tooth enamel in the process. 

6.) Watch What You Eat

Oral hygiene is great for getting tooth stains and bacteria out – but what can we do to prevent them from sticking in the first place?

The answer is a healthy and balanced diet. 

The color of your food and drink, for example, is an important factor to take into account. The pigments of what you consume can stain our teeth over time. It would be best to cut back on your intake of foods like dark meats and staining drinks. Examples include food like coffee, cola, black tea, and red wine.

Here are other tips to make sure that you’re taking in the correct food:

Eat Spicy Foods

If you love spicy food, you’ll be delighted to know that they’re great for your teeth! Eating spicy food triggers your salivary glands to produce more saliva. This can help wash out food debris stuck on your teeth and protect them with its antibacterial properties.

Stop Eating Sugar

Soda and packaged juice drinks, candies and chocolates, and other sweet treats contain copious amounts of sugar, which could be detrimental to your teeth (and your health in general!) — so avoiding them, or at least reducing your intake, is important. 

Beware of the Acid in Your Food and Drinks

Acidic foods not only cause discoloration, they can also make your teeth weaker! It’s best to try to stay away from ketchup, soy sauce, and other acid-heavy food and drinks. Fruit juices, especially the freshly-squeezed ones, contain acids that could harm your teeth’s enamel, so just be sure to drink (or rinse your mouth with) water right after. 

Photo by Trang Doan

7.) Focus on Fruits and Vegetables

Instead of eating sugary and acidic food, you may want to opt for nuts and whole grains, fruits and veggies with a low acid content, and of course, plain water, to minimize the effect of acids on your teeth (and contribute to your overall health, too!). 

8.) At-Home Remedies

At-home remedies are common and abundant. It’s important to remember that these remedies haven’t been scientifically proven and thus may not be genuinely effective. Before you use them, it might be best to consult professionals.

Some of the most common at-home remedies include oil pulling and brushing with baking soda. 

Oil pulling is the term for washing the mouth with oil to remove dirt, bacteria, and debris. The process involves washing the mouth with certain oils to help whiten the teeth. Simply rinse the mouth with oil for a minute after brushing, then spit it out. 

9.) Visit Teeth Whitening Professionals

While DIY is not a bad thing, some things are just better to leave at the hands of experts — so if you’re after teeth whitening, just go to The Smile Bar! Whitening kits, baking soda, and the like can only do so much, and it’s better to save yourself time, money, and effort by just going to the experts.

And to level up your DIY maintenance, get yourself the BrilliantSmileTM Sweden Oral Care System, too!