Can baking soda whiten teeth?

Quite a while back, we recommended Baking Soda as a great choice if you wanted to clean your toothbrush along with it. (click here to check out our full article regarding this)

However, what do you think? Could Baking soda actually be a good choice even if you wanted to make your teeth whiter?

[That is exactly what we are going to talk about in today’s article. So, keep reading to find out!]

As it turns out, baking soda actually CAN whiten your teeth!

Can Baking Soda Whiten Teeth?

Baking soda is actually chemically known as sodium bicarbonate. This is slightly abrasive, which means that it brushes against your teeth in such a way that the uppermost layer is sort of peeled off, bringing out the inner whiter layer.

So, in a way, you could actually say that baking soda does whiten your teeth. Quoting Stylecraze,

Yes, it does. The chemical composition of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) makes it mildly abrasive, which helps it remove stains from your teeth. In fact, many toothpastes and teeth whitening products use baking soda as one of the main ingredients.

However, at the same time, there are a few things that you must keep in mind.

First of all, you cannot really make the layer that has already turned yellowish back white. So, that means that the uppermost layer would naturally have to be taken off, which is alright if done once or twice, but shouldn’t be done too often.

Secondly, this is not the only benefit you get from using Baking Soda when brushing your teeth. We’ll take a closer look at this in this article.

What does Baking Soda do for your teeth?

Well, as it turns out, Baking Soda does quite a few things for your teeth as well as overall oral health, which is actually a great thing.

Some of the main things that it does are as follows:

• Teeth Whitening: As we just saw, it whitens your teeth. So, if that’s something you’re looking for, you might want to use Baking Soda on your, say, Oral-B Pro 7000 (click here to see my review of this model) and brush on time twice a day!
• Killing bacteria in your mouth: Another great known feature of Baking soda is that it’s anti bacterial! So, when you use it, you’re actually killing the bacteria inside your mouth at the same time, improving your overall dental and oral hygiene at the same time!
• Does not let bacteria grow easily: Furthermore, Baking soda also ends up making your mouth much more alkaline overall, which is actually not very conductive to the growth of bacteria, which is a long term effect you can derive out of it. Quoting Healthline,

Additionally, baking soda creates an alkaline environment in your mouth, which prevents bacteria from growing

Are there any problems to using Baking Soda?

So far, it seems like everything is positive about baking soda, right? But like everything else, it also has some limitations. Of these, one limitation is especially worth mentioning.

As we remarked earlier, this actually sort of takes off a part of the enamel of your teeth when you do it. Eventually, if you do it too many times, you might just as well end up damaging your enamel! Quoting Colgate,

If you’re considering using this method to help whiten your teeth, you need to be aware of possible side effects. With continual use, you could cause damage to the enamel that coats your teeth. In addition, baking soda doesn’t contain fluoride, which helps strengthen teeth and prevent dental cavities, so you will still need to use regular toothpaste. If you have braces that contain orthodontic glue or use a permanent retainer, don’t brush with baking soda. It will soften the glue.

How to use Baking Soda?

There are quite a few ways in which you can actually use baking soda, and most of these seem to work. So, here are the main ways that you might want to give a shot:

• Baking Soda and Salt: A lot of the people actually recommend using salt with baking soda, and this actually has been proven to be a pretty good idea, and is something you might actually go for!
• With Water: You could also try mixing baking soda with water, which is also a pretty well-tested method that you know is going to work out well.
• Hydrogen Peroxide: Here on tooth advocates, we already have an article showing you how Hydrogen peroxide is a good choice for cleaning your toothbrush (click here to check it out) but using it along with Baking Soda could also be a great idea if you want to whiten your teeth- this method claims to provide you with instant results!

Conclusion

After taking a look at all the positive aspects and limitations of using Baking Soda to whiten your teeth, I’d like to say that yes, you can use baking soda to whiten your teeth and it’s alright to do it as long as you don’t overdo it.

The main thing that you need to keep in mind is that it’s harmful when you overdo it. So, that’s something that you must keep in mind and avoid doing- as long as you can do that, you’re good to go.

Tooth Advocates is here for you!

I really hope that you found what you were looking for in today’s article. I tried my best to provide you with a comprehensive view on the whole thing, and I really hope you could find what you were looking for.

I understand that you might still have a few questions for me and I really encourage you to leave me a message if there’s anything that you think I might be able to help you with.

Thank you for taking your time to read my article till the very end, and I really hope you’d be back to check our our upcoming articles on equally interesting topics. Till we meet again, have a great time!