Cosmetic dentist shares five tips for whitening your teeth at home and keeping them white for longer.
With a cost of living crisis looming, many of us will feel the pinch and have to cut back on various cosmetic treatments and tweakments. Whilst the best teeth whitening results come from seeing your dentist for a professional whitening, there are still a few things you can do from home to keep your teeth white and bright. Sundeep Patel, Cosmetic Dentist and Clinical Lead at Waldron Dental shares his 5 tips for whitening your teeth at home.
Avoid dark coloured foods and drinks
If you want to keep a bright smile, you should avoid dark coloured foods and drinks, such as coffee, tea, red wine, curry and dark coloured berries. This is almost made worse in Autumn when these types of drinks become more popular. There are lots of microscopic holes, pits and ridges all over your teeth, and drinks that pass through your mouth will trap bacteria particles, storing them until they are removed by cleaning the teeth. This can cause staining as the bacteria particles sit within those holes and ridges leaving your teeth looking stained, dull and grey. This can only really be reversed by a professional clean and whitening so try to avoid at all costs if you can to prevent any unwanted stainage.
Choose a toothpaste with hydrogen peroxide
If you would like a cheap and easy way to help keep your teeth white, opting for a whitening toothpaste will help. You should go for ones that include hydrogen peroxide in their ingredient list as this works to remove any dark stains from the teeth and helps to keep the enamel bright and white, until your next whitening treatment.
Consider using a straw for drinks.
If you are a bit of a caffeine addict and can’t go without a daily coffee, then you should try and use a metal straw to drink these dark coloured beverages as opposed to sipping. When you sip a drink, the dark liquid is more likely to travel around your mouth and teeth causing staining, whereas drinking through a straw; it will avoid the teeth. If you like dark coloured fizzy drinks such as coca cola, you should definitely be using a straw.
Maintain oral hygiene
Another easy way to help keep your teeth in tip top condition and to help them remain white is by ensuring your oral routine is on top form. You should brush your teeth twice a day, morning and evening. I would recommend an electric toothbrush which will work harder to remove any stubborn stains, flossing twice a day or after each meal is advised. You can use mouthwash however be careful as some mouthwash can actually promote staining, so opt for a whitening mouthwash if you can.
Use whitening products before you go to bed
If you do have whitening products that have been given to you by a dental professional, then you should use these at night before you go to bed as opposed to in the day, this is because at night your saliva glands are switched off and so the whitening agent has a better chance of sticking to the teeth rather than being washed away by saliva.
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