Use baking soda daily to whiten your teeth. It tastes terrible at first, but you get used to it. Just wet your toothbrush and dip it into the baking soda and brush as usual, then follow-up brushing with regular toothpaste for fluoride, etc., and also the flavored toothpaste will get rid of the baking soda taste!
It works and I'm a coffee and a tea drinker, so my teeth were terribly yellow. Aside from professional whitening (which made my teeth very sensitive), nothing worked very well. I was spending a lot of money on various products, even with coupons.
I checked with my dentist and he also said I could make a paste with peroxide and baking soda which works well. I am going to continue with only the baking soda for now. He also recommended brushing with a little toothpaste after brushing with the baking soda/peroxide paste.
I find baking soda for a great price at the dollar store and also watch for it on sale at the drugstore when they offer their two for one sale. If you want to add peroxide to make a paste, the store brand is very inexpensive. It is great to have on hand to rinse cuts and sores. My grandchildren are always amazed to see it foam up when I rinse their cuts.
I'm an actively licensed dental hygienist, so maybe I can offer some different angles. The baking soda in the box comes in many particle sizes when seen under a microscope, and the soda in toothpastes is much smaller. There are two basic ways to whiten teeth, one is to scrub the surface with an abrasive like soda, if there's a film of something on it. If that doesn't work, then the peroxides will whiten deeper into the tooth. They can cause temporary sensitivity aggravation. Microbubbles go into the microscopic honeycomb that the enamel is made of, and you feel a few bubbles that get all the way to the nerve, for a couple of days.
Then calcification is put down by the nerve's response (special ameloblast cells do this) so you don't get the sensitization anymore. The peroxide solution you rinse with is 3 percent, which would take fifty years to work on clean teeth, if you can find some fresh enough. The strips with peroxide gels on them run about ten percent, and the dentist office Rx products run about 15 to 23 percent for quick results. I like Crest Whitestrips, once a year or so I use one or three to do a tuneup. God bless, Kim
I would be completely surprised if baking soda would bother your sensitive teeth because it doesn't contain the chemicals nor any more grit than store bought toothpaste ... Try it for a day or two and be sure and let us know the outcome please :-) Oh, and drinking Green Tea (which is good for you) and tap water both contain fluoride ...
As for Arm and Hammer toothpaste ... It's a baking soda paste so I can't help but wonder why I would want to pay that price when you can mix the baking soda (made by Arm and Hammer) that's in your kitchen cabinet with a tad bit of water ??? Just a thought ;-)
I have sensitive teeth. I can only use sensodyne toothpaste. I am afraid to use anything else. However would somebody please tell me if it will be alright, if I used baking soda for brushing my teeth. Thanks.
I think I read once that you shouldn't use baking soda with an electric toothbrush as it'd be too abrasive. I'll have to try it for whitening. Also, if you are prone to cavities you still need to use a flouride toothpaste. Baking soda is really good for a lot of things and is cheap. I get the Arm & Hammmer brand in a big pouch at Sam's Club. I think it's 4 lbs or perhaps more....too lazy to go look. Seems it costs around 4 bucks for a large amount. I use it a lot in the laundry that's why I like to buy a large supply.
I put a small amount of toothpaste on my brush and then sprinkle baking soda on top of that and brush my teeth. I get the baking soda and the toothpaste at the dollar store to save money.
My grampa used only baking soda his whole life and never even tried using toothpaste ... He had all of his teeth with minimal cavities or yellowing even when he passed away in his sixties and he loved coffee and sweets ... I remember as a little girl watching him make his 'paste' in the morning on a tiny, tiny dish with his toothbrush and a couple drops of water when we would go visit him ... There's much to said about the good old fashioned standby's ;-)
Or, you could use Arm & Hammer Complete Care Toothpaste which is made from refined Dental Baking Soda to whiten teeth,tartar control, fluoride protection and it taste great.
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