One of the most important things you can do to enhance your face and smile is taking care of your teeth. There’re so many different products on the market and tips and tricks, but most key is actually just making sure you brush your teeth twice a day with a good toothpaste and toothbrush; making sure you also change your toothbrush every three months. Flossing can also seem like a real pain and sometimes a little uncomfortable, but it does pay off by keeping the hard to reach places between your teeth clean and helping to stop the build-up of unsightly plaque. If you struggle with flossing, you could try floss picks – the picks essentially hold the floss for you and make it really convenient as you only have to use one hand.
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Bright Like a Diamond
A trip to the dentist or oral hygienist every six months is also a must, especially if you drink red wine and black coffee! As well as checking the overall condition of your teeth, they’ll end with a good scale and polish of your teeth; although this won’t whiten your teeth, it will make them look whiter and brighter by removing surface stains.
For low cost solutions, supermarkets and high street chemists sell a variety of products to whiten your teeth. Entry level to tooth whitening would be a whitening toothpaste, which essentially contains mild abrasives and gentle polishing agents to remove stains.
DIY or Professional?
The next level up are DIY home whitening kits and there’s plenty to choose from these days, including whitening strips, whitener with mouth trays that can be customized and even laser light and blue light devices. Price points vary hugely, so make sure you do your research; customer reviews are great for this.
There’s also the professional route, which although pricier, is in a more controlled environment and will more than likely give better and longer lasting results. To keep costs down, you can look out for offers and promotions and take advantage of them.
Al Naturale
If you’d prefer the natural route, big news in tooth whitening is coconut oil pulling and using activated charcoal powder. Both may sound strange, but it’s an option that’s really safe and also really friendly on your bank balance; many people swear by the results they get from these methods. Oil pulling is actually an ancient Ayurvedic dental treatment that involves swishing a tablespoon of oil around your mouth for around 20 minutes, and coconut oil which is packed with strong antibacterial properties so is often the preferred choice. Many people feel they see a difference after doing this for three or four days. Activated charcoal tooth whitening powder is also another craze right now and new brands are popping up all over the place; it can look a little messy, but is meant to be really quite effective.
If all else fails, did you know there’re certain foods that will help to whiten your teeth too? We’d recommend eating lots of juicy strawberries that contain malic acid which makes teeth whiter; even if it doesn’t work, at least you’ll enjoy trying!
How do you keep your smile sparkly?
