I keep hearing about whitening your teeth with charcoal. Is this a legitimate thing?
Marcus G.
Dear Marcus,
First, let me say I’m glad you checked before just trying this. There have always been fads in DIY teeth whitening procedures. A few years ago it was lemons. What people didn’t count on was the citric acid in lemons which started eroding their enamel. Activated Charcoal is the latest fad. To be clear, this is different from the charcoal used to fire up your grill.
The Safe Points of Charcoal Teeth Whitening
- It won’t poison you. Activated charcoal is safe to ingest in small doses. It does have medicinal uses and many natural health proponents use it as a detoxifier.
- It’s absorbent. This is one of the reasons it is effective as a detoxifier. The theory in teeth whitening is that it will absorb your stains, leaving your teeth a brighter color.
The Danger of Charcoal Teeth Whitening
The biggest danger is it’s abrasive. What does that mean for your teeth? Everything on earth has a hardness and abrasiveness level. For instance, diamond is the hardest natural substance on earth. It’s so hard, dentists will use diamond-tipped tools to cut through tooth structure.
The abrasiveness of activated charcoal is hard enough to damage your tooth enamel. In a way, that’s one of the ways it gets rid of stains and makes users think they’re teeth are getting whiter. In actuality, it’s only scratching away some stains. But, the damage to your enamel is permanent. That means it will begin to pick up stains much more quickly than in the past. Plus, without your enamel, your teeth will look dull and lifeless. Even worse, you become susceptible to decay.
This means you’ll be in a constant uphill battle to keep your teeth. I know a woman who’d never had a cavity in her life. At 48 years old, she had an accident which took off a small piece of her tooth enamel. A few months later, that tooth was infected even though she took great pains to brush it extra.
Dental bonding would have saved her from that problem, but she had some other expenses come up and had put it off. Life happens that way sometimes.
Better Ways to Whiten Your Teeth
If you really want your teeth whitened safely, your dentist can help. There are two types of professional teeth whitening most dentists offer:
- In-Office Whitening (often called Zoom Whitening).This is done in one appointment.
- Take-Home Whitening. This is done at your convenience at home using custom-made trays your dentists will provide.
This blog is brought to you by Dr. Steven Collins.