How to whiten your teeth naturally (2024)

text by Ellen Burney

“The eyes may be the soul of the face, but the mouth is the first thing people look at,” so said Dr Irwin Smigel – the American dentist who brightened the smile of Elizabeth Taylor – to New York magazine in 1981. Although he developed laser teeth-whitening and the use of cosmetic veneers in the 1970s, teeth-whitening actually dates back 4,000 years to Cleopatra, when wealthy Egyptians showed off beauty and status through teeth whitened by a paste of ground pumice stone and wine vinegar. (With relatively less allure, the Romans used urine, which contains the natural bleaching agent, ammonia.)

Today the mass marketing for brighter white smiles has seen our bedrooms transformed into boutique dentists, full of DIY teeth-whitening offerings from charcoal-activated powders and prescriptive paint-on products to dentist-designed toothpastes and the holistic practice of coconut oil pulling.

But can you really get a gleaming white smile while streaming Netflix? Vogue gets to the root of teeth-whitening at home.

How to whiten teeth naturally
“Clean the teeth gently with a mixture of honey and burnt salt to which some vinegar has been added,” advised influential French surgeon Guy de Chauliac back in the 14th century. Today, while a new guard of techy, teeth-whitening systems complete with LED lights and heat make a buzz, there’s still a place for the less expensive option of natural teeth whitening. At the moment, there’s a few DIY teeth-whitening techniques that are making a splash, one of which is activated charcoal teeth-whitening powder. But does brushing your teeth with black powder really reverse yellow shades back to white? The theory is that the charcoal pulls stains off your teeth through a process called “adsorption”. The fine black powder blend of bone char, olive pits, coal, sawdust and coconut shells – is “activated” when processed with intense heat and a change in the internal structure then makes it more porous than regular charcoal. There’s no science to say that it will magically whiten teeth, but it’s proved to be effective in absorbing plaque and other teeth-staining compounds, therefore creating the appearance of a whiter smile.

How to whiten teeth at home (with a helping hand from the dentist)
Fast-forward to the 17th century, when barbers would file down teeth and apply an acid to whiten teeth while eroding the tooth enamel. Dentists today use a high-strength hydrogen peroxide for instant whitening, but the treatment can be costly. “It’s effective but results vary from patient to patient and it’s hard to determine what the outcome will be,” says Dr Penelope Hall, a British dentist based in Singapore. “It’s also very painful for many people, although the pain usually only lasts for a couple of days. Patients often end up using at-home, teeth-whitening trays to maintain, so it’s effectively more expensive.” Dr Hall thinks the best way to whiten teeth is pairing a custom-made whitening tray created by your dentist with a store-bought whitening kit, such as Opalescence 35% Carbamide Peroxide. “The great thing with at-home, dentist-prescribed trays is that patients can top up their whitening periodically by buying a new syringe of whitening gel.” Such custom-bleaching trays use lower levels of peroxide than in-dentist offerings and so need to be used more regularly.

Does coconut oil whiten teeth?
Other teeth-whitening, home-remedy rumours include coconut oil pulling – a 3,000-year-old Ayurvedic practice of swishing a tablespoon of coconut oil around your mouth for 20 minutes a day. The claim is that the oil cuts through plaque, which will in time whiten teeth. While it can optimise oral health – cleansing teeth and gums of bacteria – evidence is scant that it can actually whiten teeth. “A lot of people say it does whiten teeth, but there is nothing really supporting this,” says Eminé Ali Rushton, Ayurvedic expert and author of The Body Balance Diet Plan. “I coconut oil pull to cleanse my mouth, gums and teeth, and to draw out toxins. I also find that charcoal and coconut toothpaste leaves my teeth looking brighter. As they are gently abrasive and deep-cleansing, teeth do tend to look whiter afterwards, but the coconut oil thing alone is a little misleading.”

Will baking soda whiten teeth?
“Baking soda is great for stain removal but can be abrasive,” says Dr Hall. “It doesn’t physically whiten the enamel, it just makes teeth look cleaner as it removes plaque and stains.” And there lies the rub (literally). Most claims of natural teeth-whitening treatments are, in reality, simple teeth stain removers. While superficial stains come from caffeine, wine, cola, tobacco and also some medications, diseases and genetics, it is often possible to prevent teeth stains occurring in the first place.

How to prevent teeth stains in the first place?
Unfortunately, the discolouration of teeth can be traced to the delightful practice of caffeine and Cabernet consumption and so removing these teeth-staining culprits – alongside cigarettes and berry-boosted smoothies – is key to perking up your pearl whites.

Producing saliva is paramount for breaking down yellow-coloured plaque. The most important time of day to brush your teeth is (for two minutes) just before you go to bed. During the day we swallow 2,000 times, but when we sleep, we could swallow just 20 times and so our mouths get dry. Nutritionist Natasha Corrett recommends eating foods that crunch too – such as apples, nuts and seeds, cauliflower and raw broccoli – as the crunching motion stimulates saliva production.

But all effects of teeth-whitening treatments are temporary – even whitening strips, which bleach the part of the tooth just below the enamel – and so tea, coffee, tobacco, wine and cola will all re-stain whitened teeth. Avoid drinking the good stuff (!) and continue to use whitening toothpaste to avoid any further discolouration.

… Or, more realistically, take a co*cktail of cause and cure.