Let's Chat: Teeth Whitening (& OIl Pulling)

A couple of weeks ago, I was out for lunch with one of my friends and she asked me how I keep my teeth so white. We ended up spending most of our meal talking about teeth, and thus a blog post was born! A lot of my blog post ideas come out of conversations with friends and I am so excited about this little 'Let's Chat' series. I have a few ideas for posts, but if there is anything you would like me to post about - let me know! 

I definitely wouldn't consider myself an authority on teeth whitening - it has been a lot of trial and error over the years. So, I will walk you through my 'teeth whitening journey' (ha! It hasn't really been a journey) and I will share what I am doing now to keep my teeth white!

Whitening my teeth really only became an issue of interest for me when I got my braces taken off. I got my braces taken off not long before prom, and I wanted to make sure my new straightened smile was sparkling white before prom! At this time, I really only did one thing - baking soda and lemon. This method worked, but I wouldn't recommend it. It really did whiten my teeth but it made my gums hurt like heck! I would never do this again - it works but the pain is not worth the white smile!

Next, I moved on to more sophisticated methods - Crest White Strips. Like the baking soda and lemon, these really work but I would never use them again. I was frustrated with how gradual these were. I had to use them several times before I noticed a difference and by the time I noticed a difference, my teeth were SO sensitive. After several uses, my teeth got super sensitive. I stopped using these pretty fast.

Onto my current teeth whitening method (and potentially the most obscure) - oil pulling! I oil pull coconut oil every other day (I try for every day, but that never happens) and this has had the best results on my teeth. I love that this is good for your teeth (unlike the other 2 methods I've tried) and it whitens better than any of my other attempts!

Oil pulling is super weird at first (and that's an understatement). Putting a spoonful of coconut oil in your mouth, is pretty awful the first few times you do it. But, power through because it works so well and it gets 100% less weird! I put a spoonful of refined coconut oil in my mouth and swoosh it around for 15-20 minutes while I do other things. After oil pulling, just make sure you spit the oil in the garbage because it does not drain down the sink well.
 
On top of oil pulling, every once in a while, I'll use one of these:

Lush - Boom! Toothy Tabs

These are little charcoal tablets from Lush that whiten your teeth without causing any damage. I use one of these tablets once or twice a month and they work great on top of the oil pulling! This current method is my very favorite - oil pulling every other day and Lush charcoal tablets once or twice a month. I love that they whiten my teeth without causing any sensitivity!

Let me know if you have any tooth whitening questions or information to share with me!