One of the homemade teeth whitening remedies that have been gaining popularity is a concoction of strawberry and baking soda. A recent study now shows that while this mixture actually works in removing surface dirt, it cannot give you the same kind of result that a teeth whitening treatment by a cosmetic dentist in Dallas, PA can provide.
So Ran Kwon, associate professor of dentistry at the University of Iowa, tested for the effectiveness of the formula by rubbing strawberries and baking soda on extracted teeth for five minutes, followed by gentle brushing. Despite doing it three times a day, it bared no major whitening changes.
As reported by Richard Lewis in Iowa Now, the university’s news website, the failure is attributed to the concoction’s lack of hydrogen or carbamide peroxide, the key ingredients in tooth whitening products.
Other fruits believed to have teeth whitening properties, like apples and lemons, also do not contain hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide, which would suggest that they would be equally lacking in effectiveness as teeth whiteners.
Lewis also added that the fruit mixture may be doing more harm than good. A separate study published in June revealed that the citric acid content of strawberry may reduce teeth hardness by 10 percent, because of its erosive effect.
While the whitening agents hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide may also have erosive effects, their concentration in teeth whitening procedures are not high enough to produce this result. According to the American Dental Association, dentists whiten teeth with hydrogen peroxide at concentrations between 25 and 40 percent. Approved over-the-counter whitening products have around 10 percent carbamide peroxide or 3.5 percent hydrogen peroxide.
A cosmetic dentist in Dallas, PA is trained to determine how much of these ingredients a patient’s teeth may need, and how to apply the formulation without the risk of leakage. Additionally, the kind of treatment you can get from dental offices like Back Mountain Dental whitens teeth from the inside, thus getting rid of stains that may have formed on teeth’s inner layers. The procedure leaves a long-lasting and dramatic result that you can never get from homemade remedies.
