Monday 22 June 2015

Cheaper alternative to teeth whitening?


With Coco white all over Instagram lately, I was intrigued as to how coconut oil can whiten teeth naturally without any harsh chemicals! I've always been afraid of having my teeth whitened at the dentist because I have sensitive teeth and I don't think I could personally bare the pain for slightly whiter teeth, but as this is natural, I set off on my quest to find some pure coconut oil and at just £2.25 for 500ml I had nothing to lose. I did however jump into this idea at the deep end and didn't have a clue how I was meant to use this coconut oil to actually whiten my teeth, so I went back to trusty google and instantly found ways of using this on my teeth. 


Coconut oil. 

One of the suggestions to using this that I found was; to swish around two teaspoons of the oil around your mouth for 10 minutes pushing and pulling it through the gaps between your teeth before brushing your teeth with normal toothpaste! It suggested that you should build up to this amount of time but I couldn't even stomach the oil in my mouth for a minute let alone ten! I kept trying this method every night using less oil for shorter periods of time and just repeating it, but it still made me feel sick because of the strange consistency to the oil. 


Coconut oil. 

The oil itself doesn't have an unpleasant taste providing you actually like coconut which I do, but it is a really thick paste to begin with when you first place it in your mouth and then it then quickly changes to a really thin oil that I just didn't like! Even using just a little bit at a time wasn't working for me so I decided to try a different method mentioned by people who also didn't like the traditional oil pulling method. 


The oil. 


This method was to cover a toothbrush in the oil and simply brush your teeth! I found this a lot easier to do and I also saw a noticeable difference after just a couple of days. I would suggest you buy a cheap tooth brush for this and definitely don't use and electric toothbrush because the oil will clog the brush. I brush my teeth like this for about 2-3 minutes every other night and then swish the remaining oil left in my mouth around before spitting it out. It's definitely easier than the traditional method and the results on me personally worked a lot better because I could keep it in my mouth longer! If you do want a quicker or more of a result you can mix the coconut oil with baking soda which is used in a lot of whitening toothpastes. 


Toothbrush method. 

Swallowing the coconut oil should be kept to a minimum because of the bacteria being collected when using these methods, and ensure after using either method you rinse your mouth throughly with warm water to remove any left over oil before brushing you teeth normally! I prefer to do this at night because I have more time but a lot of website do say that doing this in the morning has higher benefits for oral health. As well as whitening your teeth this is actually a great way to improve your overall oral health as it removes harmful bacterias and improves your gums. 




I would say if you really don't like the taste of coconut then coco white might be a better suggestion because they have three different flavours: light lemon, vanilla swirl and minty fresh which I could've personally handled better to swish around my mouth, but this is a great alternative if you want to try it first before ordering the real thing! Coco white itself retails for £19.99 plus £3.99 postage (within the uk) for 14 sachets so it can be quite expensive long term where are coconut oil is available from every supermarket and health food store and is a lot cheaper. So there is definitely benefits to each option. 

I will continue using this consistently to help me improve my oral health as well as keep my teeth looking whiter, so I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who doesn't want to spend a great deal on whitening there teeth, and also someone who prefers natural things to harsh chemicals. This is also suitable for vegans which can be a problem when using some whitening products. 

Thank you for reading and I hope you found this helpful! xo. 

Links. 

xo.

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