Home remedy for teeth whitening-DANGEROUS

I saw on Dr. Oz that we can whiten our teeth using a home remedy of lemon juice and baking soda. I was excited about that idea and told a bunch of my friends, but one of them has a husband who is a dentist and he told  her that it was bad for your teeth to do that. Do you have an opinion?

Alena- Oklahoma

Alena,

Your friend’s husband is correct; this method of teeth whitening is really dangerous. The juice from lemons is extremely acidic, which eats away your teeth enamel. And, to be quite honest, it won’t whiten your teeth very much without you leaving it on for a long period of time. But, the longer you leave it on, the more damage it does to your enamel. It won’t do any good to whiten teeth that no longer have enough enamel on them to be viable.

In order to really effectively whiten your teeth, what you need is to leave a whitening solution on your teeth for a minimum of thirty minutes a day. It  is even better if you do it overnight. The solution has to soak into your teeth in order to do any good.

Just for good dental hygiene information, anytime you eat of drink anything that is acidic and contains citric acid (like lemon juice or sodas), you need to wait 30 minutes before brushing your teeth. It would also be a good idea to swish some water around your mouth too.

This blog is brought to you by Naperville Cosmetic Dentist Dr. David Newkirk.