The public’s confidence in the effectiveness of whitening toothpastes may have faded somewhat after the Advertising Standards Authority banned the advert for Arm & Hammer’s Advanced Whitening toothpaste. It emerged that 43 per cent of users, during a four week trial, either saw no improvement or were left with darker teeth.
As such, many may be under the false impression that to remove stains caused by drinking tea, coffee, red wine or tobacco, and regain a bright, white smile, they need to resort to costly teeth whitening treatment, harsh acids and abrasives, or home bleaching kits. This isn’t the case.
Whiter teeth
A UK Dental School performed an in-vitro laboratory study, which aimed to measure stain removal and discover how effective various toothpastes were at removing dietary stains from perspex, compared to water.
The assessment involved obtaining stimulated saliva from two volunteers, who had not eaten or drank anything, other than water, for two hours. Approximately 100ml was used for the 10 staining cycles (10/15ml per cycle).
All perspex samples were immersed in human saliva for two minutes; 20ml of 0.2 per cent chlorhexidine based mouthwash for two minutes; and 10ml tea solution for 60 minutes, before being removed and rinsed in distilled water. Toothpaste slurry was prepared by mixing a ratio of 3g toothpaste: 10ml distilled water for each cycle.
Fresh saliva proceeded to be collected from a single source, and the tea and chlorhexidine solutions changed after each staining cycle. Perspex blocks were measured before and after immersion in toothpaste slurries, for periods of between one and five minutes, and the stain removal percentage calculated.
The laboratory tests revealed that stain removal was performed after just one minute. Of the products tested, Beverly Hills Formula Natural Whitening Expert toothpaste proved most effective at removing stains when compared with other leading brands of whitening toothpastes and toothpolishes, with over 91 per cent of stains removed over a five-minute period.
In today’s image conscious society, the power of a gleaming smile can never be underestimated, and it needn’t be at a huge expense. As the festive party season kicks off, people want to look their best and smile with confidence. These results confirm that more people can now restore their teeth to a natural, white colour, quickly, simply by using effective toothpastes.
References available on request.