Are Teeth Whiteners And Whitening Toothpastes Safe To Use?

I love the pearly whites that are seen behind the smile.....so bright and perfect. They seem to enhance a smile that simply cannot go unnoticed similar to the way a person who has bad teeth does not go unnoticed. Smiles are an integral part of conveying emotion to those around us. So with the importance of a smile do you use teeth whiteners or whitening toothpastes?

Teeth Whiteners

I personally have used over the counter teeth whiteners such as Crest White Strips and I have found them to do the job quite well. My teeth will usually get 4 shades whiter from where I began.

They are relatively easy to apply, however you have to guard against the slobbers. My salivary glands always kick into overdrive when I put these goopy strips in my mouth. The best way I am able to curb this is to lay down on my back and relax. After a few minutes you get used to the weird sensation and you can set about watching the clock to pass the 30 minute mark.

It always seems to last an hour by my body's clock when waiting for something to get done....kind of like watching a pot of water come to a boil....forever waiting!

The taste is okay but not great....a tad on the sweet side. Although the effects can be quite dramatic, this little project is not my favorite thing to do each year. They are also spendy and in order to get it over with faster, I use the 7 day strips rather than the 14 day strips. As it is, 7 days is about as long as I can stand this ritual.

Whitening Toothpastes

Now between whitening rituals, I maintain my white, bright smile with toothpastes that claim to keep the teeth looking whiter and there are as many brands in toothpaste as there are in toilet paper. I typically choose Arm and Hammer Baking Soda PeroxiCare formula. This falls back on my childhood memory of my mom having me brush with baking soda periodically in a pinch when she would forget to buy more toothpaste for us kids.

Not only does it maintain the pearlies, it also gives them a just polished feel. They always feel so smooth and clean. The taste isn't bad either. Some toothpastes are so strong in smell and flavor they tend to burn my senses and overpower my taste buds. Arm and Hammer seems to be just right.

With all of this great whitening effect I also end up using Sensodyne toothpaste periodically because my teeth get very sensitive and this usually corrects the problem caused by the whitening gels.

Little did I know.........

The Downside Is.... According To Mr. Dentist

After performing this ritual for a few years and my husband recently joined me a couple of years ago in doing the same....a visit to the dentist proved to be eye opening.

My husbands appointment was before mine and the verdict wasn't good. In today's economic crunch and my hubby being a Boise Home Builder, well long story short, he has been home quite a bit. However, I have kept him busy helping me with Sterling Minerals Cosmetics shipments. Packaging and postal runs have helped to reduce boredom and stress. On occasion I have woken up also only to find my jaw clenched. Strange times makes for strange behavior!

The dentist discovered erosion on his teeth surfaces due to teeth grinding, something he has never done before, cracked teeth now requiring crowns and the big warning of using teeth whiteners. Essentially he is looking at about $6000.00 in dental work. Aye Caramba!

The Big Eye Opener

Not even realizing what we were doing to our teeth, the dentist spelled it out to my husband and he relayed it to me. I don't know if it was the condition of his teeth that the warning came or what, but this is the summation of the conversation:

Teeth Whiteners are for the most part, safe and is accomplished through bleaching as most of us know. The main bleaching ingredient is a form of peroxide within the gel. The downside which I touched on a bit is this does cause extreme sensitivity in most and especially as we get older as in our cases sensitivity is more prevalent. We have more erosion, cracked surfaces through exposing the tooth pulp that makes our teeth vulnerable to high levels of sensitivity. So needless to say, no more teeth whiteners for us.

Now came the really bad news for whitening toothpastes and one he elaborated on more so. All this time I thought I was doing a good thing for our teeth, only to learn this was causing subsequent erosion to teeth surfaces according to our dentist. Brushing our teeth is always a good thing but not when we use brushes other than soft bristle and then incorporate an abrasive toothpaste to boot.

Great....now the guilt sets in since I am the one that chooses our toiletries for the home. Apparently toothpaste companies have created a tooth polish instead of a teeth whitener unlike what it says on the box, and they are very abrasive to teeth surfaces.

In part some of this is aging and in others it is accelerated due to stresses in our life and advancing conditions with over the counter products that really seem to cause more harm than good.

The use of hydrated silica is found in just about every whitening toothpaste and is combined with sodium hydroxide....what....caustic soda (lye)....now I am horrified.

Hydrated silica is what is used by dentists when they polish our teeth during a dental visit. It gives the teeth a beautifully smooth surface after removal of plaque but is way too abrasive for everyday use.

Sodium Hydroxide for bleaching...I am thinking "what is this doing in toothpaste?" This is what they use to saponify soap and clean out clogged drains. The caustic effect is like drinking soda or acidic fruit drinks causing enamel erosion, only at 1000 more times the speed. No wonder people get sensitive teeth. We are literally destroying teeth surfaces with these over the counter products with little to no knowledge of the harm they are causing us, much less what's in them.

And the bigger picture is.....are you ready?....they don't even whiten teeth all that well. They strictly perform more stain removal which is not whitening. Enamel must be bleached to achieve the whitening effect such as with lasers or high concentrations of peroxide solutions.

Needless to say, I now must investigate every whitening toothpaste and whitening strips on the drugstore shelf. I read every label, something I have never done for toothpaste. So now I am guilty of going by the bright box of glistening foil postulating "WHITENING FORMULA" with little regard to what is in it. I figured it works and it's just toothpaste.....you brush and then you spit it out. As far as the white strips, same thing, I only use these once per year. No harm, no foul!

I was dumbfounded when I flipped around the box and looked at the label, learning that Crest White Strips uses sodium hydroxide in their formulas also, so now I realize I am soaking my teeth in this toxic, caustic gel completely oblivious to the damage I was doing to my teeth.

A Reprieve From Total Guilt

The great news is Arm and Hammer, thank goodness, doesn't use sodium hydroxide and the use of silica is far more reduced. For the most part in the majority of their traditional toothpaste formulations they have stayed true to form and only use sodium bicarbonate for the polishing ingredient. I found the silica in their Peroxicare low on the list and other whitening formulas which I have used in the past. Sodium Bicarbonate, a gentle ingredient which dissolves as it gets wet, does the nice job of preventing tartar by keeping plaque to a minimum. It can also help to remove stains. Silica does not dissolve however, and it is basically tiny grains of sand doing the work, hence the destruction of enamel over the long term.

And Arm and Hammer uses a true bleaching agent, Sodium Carbonate Peroxide. This breaks down into sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen peroxide acts as a bleach, and as an anti-microbial agent. The high alkalinity of the sodium carbonate boosts the bleaching effect of hydrogen peroxide.

I contacted my dentist after my little discovery and sigh of relief, gleeful in the knowledge I had been using their products for years as my favorite choice. I guess the name recognition stemming from childhood is what kept me loyal to the brand.

I received the thumbs up from my dentist on this great over the counter toothpaste and was glad there was still a product on the market keeping it safer and simple. His recommendation was still to limit the use of it to 2 to 3 days per week if I wanted to continue with the whitening products since he also told me that using an abrasive teeth cleaner even with lower ratio of hydrated silica, can cause gums to recede. His advice, if I wanted to continue to use it, was to begin brushing on larger tooth surfaces staying clear of the gum line until most of the baking soda was dissolved. Plus buffers are added to their formulas to increase gentle polishing effect. Baking Soda also is much safer and not as abrasive when put into a toothpaste rather than straight from the box. Great in a pinch like when we were kids, but long term use straight out of the box can have similar effects of using silica, however it takes much longer to cause the same damage with sodium bicarbonate.

However, with the knowledge of silica still being in the whitening formulas I decided to switch to the Dental Care Advanced Cleaning version. Still had the baking soda I like but it does eliminate the whitening ingredient and the hydrated silica. But that's okay since tooth sensitivity needs to be reduced and baking soda will do a pretty good job on its own at polishing those pearly whites.

Arm and Hammer does offer a new product that is a whitening booster you simply add to your toothpaste. This eliminates the use of inconvenient strips, however be aware, even though the caustic lye ingredient is gone they do substitute it with Phosphoric Acid which is what we find in sodas and is also known to cause breakdown of enamel. As my Dentist made clear, any whitener should be used sparingly to prevent sensitivity and destruction of tooth enamel.

What's In A Name....False Advertising!

Now, I decided to look into other baking soda formulas on the market to check for similar safety as with Arm and Hammer toothpastes, thinking maybe the others have caught on and are offering something a bit more gentle. Crest, Aqua Fresh and Colgate to name several and guess what....they still have hydrated silica as the foremost ingredient before sodium bicarbonate. They also use different forms of peroxide for oxygenation in combination with the caustic sodium hydroxide for pronounced bleaching effect.

A perfect example of a label pronouncement that creates a false sense of security for the consumer thinking that is what they are buying. Most, just like me in this case, won't read the ingredient label beyond what the face label projects. They will take this labeling as fact and go with it. These products were not made gentler or safer they were recreated with a couple of key ingredients for marketing to compete with Arm and Hammer.

So after all of this investigation of toothpastes and their claims, I have yet again, learned an invaluable lesson. Never....and I mean never, take a product package at face value and read the ingredient list. Yes...even on something as mundane as toothpaste.

Be cautious and consumer savvy..... since the achievement of that perfect smile may actually be your teeths' undoing!

Take care and have a great weekend.

PS Latest video on Problems With Pressed Powders is up! View it at Sterling Minerals Media Zone.