Everyone wants that Hollywood smile, where actors have white pearls for teeth. Because of that, many home practices have emerged in an attempt to whiten teeth. One such idea is to use coconut oil for whiter teeth. So, does coconut oil whiten teeth?
Coconut oil won’t change the color of your teeth in any way. It might provide a polished or lustrous surface for your teeth, but it won’t whiten them.
Yet, many people online claim to have used it and gotten great results, so what’s going on? This article will show it all.
Teeth Cleaning
People often confuse the various teeth cleaning procedures with each other. In general, there are three different steps to (beautify) your teeth, providing that they’re already sound. Those are scaling, polishing, and whitening.
These three procedures act on the enamel of your teeth, which is the outermost layer that covers every single tooth in the mouth. This surface has no nerve endings, which is why all of the following procedures are painless.
Scaling
Scaling is the process of removing any harmful substances that may be stuck to your teeth. Only your dentist can do this and it has to be on the dental chair.
The dentist would use a cleaning tip attached to an ultrasonic scaler to scrap any plaque from your teeth.
This plaque is, be ready for it, a combination of bacteria and food remnants that harden and cover your teeth. If left untreated, this plaque will get discolored and will darken the color of your teeth.
Once the plaque is removed, you might get the illusion that your teeth are brighter or whiter. This is why scaling can have little to no effect if you’re already taking good care of your teeth.
Polishing
Polishing is when your dentist cleans your teeth after scaling. It’s essentially a glorified toothbrushing session.
Polishing will remove any food stains from your teeth and give them a brighter appearance. This effect is very similar to what coconut oil does to the teeth.
However, polishing won’t have any effect if the teeth are covered in plaque.
Whitening
Whitening is when the dentist uses a bleaching agent to infiltrate the tooth structure and whiten the teeth from the inside. Teeth are made from three layers; enamel, dentin, and cementum.
As mentioned earlier, the enamel is the outmost yellowish-white coverage that we all see. The bleaching agent goes inside the micropores of that enamel and whitens its color. Coconut oil cannot do that.
Then why do some people report some good results?
Coconut Oil Mythbusting
Coconut oil essentially acts as the polishing stage for teeth beautification. When someone decides to use coconut oil, they don’t solely rely on it to get results.
In other words, a person who’s dedicated to getting whiter teeth will take all possible measures. Such a person will start regular teeth brushing and flossing.
If such a person’s teeth were covered by a considerable amount of stains, then the combined effort of toothbrush cleaning and coconut oil polishing will give the illusion of whiter teeth.
Such results often take less than a week to appear and it takes most people by surprise. What they don’t know is that regular tooth brushing and cleaning will achieve the same results.
Subjective Results of Coconut Oil
The brightening effect of teeth will be much more prominent if the person was previously ignorant about their teeth, then started taking care of them all of a sudden.
These are the people who often report great results.
On the other hand, those who regularly brush their teeth won’t notice anything different when they use coconut oil on their teeth.
Coconut Oil Whitening and Science
Coconut oil has many evidence-based health benefits. However, science is yet to prove any relation between teeth whitening and the usage of coconut oil, furtherly supporting the explanation mentioned above.
If you have been ignoring your teeth but decided that it’s time to change, then you should start to clean and floss your teeth regularly.
Adequately brushing your teeth is more than enough to clean any food or drink stains that may have accumulated over time.
In other words, good teeth brushing will return your teeth to their natural appearance. So, if they were considerably unclean before, then regular tooth brushing will make you feel that they became whiter.
If you pair coconut oil in the mix, you might mistakenly think that it’s the reason for the brighter results. Regardless, actual whitening can only be achieved by using a dental, tooth-safe bleaching agent.
Final Words
To wrap things up, coconut oil alone won’t brighten your teeth in any way. It may give a shiny, reflective surface but won’t whiten your teeth.
Getting actual teeth whitening can only be safely done only in the dental clinic. However, the teeth must be clean and plaque-free before any of that happens.
That was a fantastic article. I’m a dentist myself, and I can confirm that all the facts mentioned above are correct. It’s almost as if the article itself was written by a dentist. The terminology used is on point.
Great job!