Does Activated Charcoal For Teeth Whitening Works?
What is activated charcoal?
It is not a regular charcoal, its activated charcoal which means it’s been processed differently so it has more actual activity than regular charcoal. It is used in water filters, it may have some cosmetic application and now people are beginning to use it for teeth whitening to brighten up their smile.
Activated Charcoal for Teeth Whitening
The charcoal comes in different forms as far as using it as toothpaste. You can get it as a powder that you add or mix in with your regular toothpaste. You can also get it in capsules that you can open and put it in your toothpaste. You can get it and not even use regular toothpaste; you just dip your toothbrush in the charcoal powder and brush your teeth that way. They also have charcoal toothbrushes so you may not even need toothpaste or charcoal powder, just use one of the charcoal toothbrushes to brush your teeth.
Does Activated Charcoal Work?
Probably it does whiten your teeth, but if it whitens the teeth very significantly that means it could be abrasive, and it could possibly be very abrasive. We don’t really know because no long term studies have been used. If its abrasive and you use it regularly, that means it’s likely to thin out the enamel causing the tooth to become thinner. If it becomes thinner it can fracture or it can chip. As it thins out it becomes translucent so it may affect the appearance of the tooth. It can cause notching or ditching or cutting in the roots of the teeth. It has been tested on situations with abrasive toothpastes.
How activated charcoals affect gum tissues?
If it’s abrasive it may cause some irritation of the gum, irritation of the tissue, and reddening of the gum tissue. In contrast to the normal pink tissue, if the tissue gets a little redder it may make the teeth look whiter.
Activated Charcoal on your Dental Restoration
If you have restoration on your teeth like crowns, bridges, veneers or fillings that are made to match the shade of your tooth, when you whiten your tooth you’re not going to whiten your crowns, bridges, veneers or fillings. They’re going to stay the same color and there could be a color disparity. So if everything looks like it’s even now, then you start whitening your teeth and it successfully whitens them, but it doesn’t whiten your crowns, bridges, veneers or fillings, you may look worse because you have some teeth that are whiter and some teeth that are not whiter. You have to be really extra careful and thoughtful before you do something to whiten your teeth. These are some important things to note before proceeding with this method.
