Toothpaste can whiten teeth, but you need know facts

May 25th, 2009 by TeethBleachingPlanet | Filed under Facts

Teeth are something that can definitely show your true age. The teeth naturally darken with age, and the brilliant smile you had at the age of twenty may be dull and yellow by the age of forty. This is especially true for smokers and drinkers of coffee and tea. Smiles can be whitened quickly using high powered bleach formulations in a dentist’s office; this procedure, however, is very expensive. For just this reason, many people use teeth whitening toothpastes to help brighten their stained teeth. Can you really expect white teeth by using toothpaste?

Ads predictably have people with brilliant smiles touting whitening toothpastes as an easy way to get a glowing smile simply through brushing. As usually happens, these claims are, of course, overrated. Toothpaste alone cannot reverse stains caused by years of smoking and coffee drinking.

Even though teeth whitening toothpastes will take away the surface stains and lighten up your teeth, most likely you won’t see a major change. Teeth whitening toothpastes thoroughly clean the teeth through a mixture of abrasives and detergents. They might also include the enamel-lightening agent carbomide peroxide. Unfortunately, some people who have discolored teeth have problems much deeper than the enamel on the surface. As someone gets older, the inside layer of the tooth, called the dentin, becomes darker; this causes the tooth to look yellow, specifically as the outsider layer begins to get thinner. Toothpastes with teeth whitening ingredients cannot reach the dentin to whiten teeth noticeably. Although they are more abrasive than regular toothpaste, they are considered safe to use, and do not cause significant damage to the teeth.

Toothpaste alone might not fully whiten teeth, but it can remove surface stains and make teeth look brighter if they aren’t yellowed at the dentin level. For real teeth-whitening power, a higher level of hydrogen peroxide is needed. Even tooth bleaching items with a lot of hydrogen peroxide might not work for people with darkened dentin.

What’s the bottom line here? Teeth may not be whitened effectively with these toothpastes, but they are useful for removing surface stains that dull the smile, and they cost less than dental bleaching.

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