Whiten Teeth With Activated Charcoal

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I have been whitening my teeth through at home methods for 10 years. I tend to do it once every 12-18 months. Though most products I’ve used have worked pretty well, I have always experienced tooth sensitivity. So I’ve turned to home remedies like brushing with baking soda, or with activated charcoal.

Most at home teeth whitening products require you to use the product once or twice a day, for a specified amount of days. Since my teeth got so sensitive after a few applications, I was never ever able to complete a full cycle.

I was online looking for some remedies for gout, as one of my family member contracted a bout of it. One of the suggestions was to use activated charcoal. I had never heard of this stuff! Upon some more research, I learned that AC is also great for whitening teeth. My teeth looked like they needed their sorta regular annual-ish whitening, so I decided to try it out. Oh, and of course, I wanted to try it to fix my loved one’s gout :p

What Is Activated Charcoal?

AC is regular charcoal that has been purified, which in turn makes it super porous. It acts like a magnet and is often used to suck up impurities. You know that black stuff in your water filters? Yup, that’s activated charcoal. It’s used to adsorb all the bad stuff in your water.

It is also commonly used to draw out other bad things, like poison from bug/insect bites, nasty stomach viruses, and even alcohol for those times that you’ve just had way too much to drink! ha ha…

It also works the same way on your teeth. Activated charcoal absorbs the tannins (the wonderful stuff that gives coffee, wine, certain fruits, etc. their colour).

Where to buy:

Try looking at your local drugstore for activated charcoal, I was able to find it in the multivitamins/supplements section. If you can’t find it there, try Amazon. You can purchase bags of AC in powder form which is easiest to use, but the most common way it’s sold in stores is capsule form.

Okay, let’s get to how it’s done!

Supplies:

Activated Charcoal like this stuff here

A Toothbrush

A glass cup

1. Brush your teeth without any toothpaste to get rid of any food bits and plaque stuck on your teeth. Break open a capsule and pour about half of the contents into a cup. I suggest using a cup that won’t stain easily, like glass. A shot glass would be perfect size.

2. Add in some water to the powder. I suggest starting out with a few drops first, and swirl the cup around gently (like a wine glass) to see if it’s enough water. If not, add a few more drops. Be careful not to add too much water, as you WILL be swishing this stuff in your mouth for a minute or so. You want it liquidy enough so that you can pour it into your mouth, but not so much that your mouth is too full.

3. Put it in your mouth! I like to pretend I’m taking a shot, with no swallowing. Swish the concoction around in your mouth to make sure you’ve got it allover your teeth. Hold it in your mouth for 1 minute. I’ve actually held it in my mouth for about 15 mins before. The time is up to you! Just make sure you direct the liquid towards your teeth area, and not at the back of your mouth. It doesn’t taste like anything, but it does have a gritty feel to it, sorta like sand.

Don’t you love how this stuff makes your mouth and teeth look? ha ha… looks like something straight out of a horror movie!

4. After you’ve had enough of holding the AC in your mouth, spit it out CAREFULLY! If you spit it out too fast it will bounce and splash everywhere! It does stain a bit, but can be easily washed off with some elbow grease. I like to avoid extra work, so I just make sure I spit it down the sinkhole.

5. You’re still gonna have some black stuff stuck in your mouth after you spit it out. You can take a toothbrush and gently brush your teeth with the leftovers to get a little bit more cleaning action. The grittiness helps to clean and smooth your teeth. Or, you can just swish and rinse with some water. I find that swishing isn’t enough though, so I always end up going the toothbrush method anyway.

Voila! Enjoy your whiter, brighter smile! I saw results right away, after the first time. I’ve been doing it for about a week, and my teeth have really whitened up. And I don’t have any tooth sensitivity!

My results after a week: