Most men I know have spent time and money trying to whiten their teeth. It’s a universal aspiration: no one wants yellow teeth, but many guys are reluctant to start the process because of the cost. But today there are many more ways to accomplish teeth whitening inexpensively. Let’s have a look at teeth whitening for men, and 14 methods that actually work.
Why do men want to whiten their teeth? Simply put, white teeth convey that a man is in optimum health. A majority of women (72%), look at a man’s teeth before considering having him as a partner. In addition, employers are swayed to hire a man who presents himself with a clean and white smile.
Table of Contents
1. Start By Brushing Teeth Daily
Regular brushing and flossing teeth remove food residue, which can stain and discolor teeth. It’s recommended that you brush twice a day, and after meals where food gets caught between the teeth.
Always use a toothbrush with soft bristles. Medium and hard-bristled toothbrushes may remove the protective enamel covering the teeth.
Correct brushing technique
Place the toothbrush at a 45-degree angle relative to the gums. Move the brush in back and forth motions (not up and down). You’ll be brushing the outer surfaces of the teeth, then the inside, then the top, chewing part of the teeth. Always brush with soft strokes, there is no need to apply pressure to the teeth.
Last, to remove particles from between the teeth, move the toothbrush vertically up and brush up with up and down strokes.
Even after you brush, bacteria remain between the teeth and can cause tooth decay. This same bacteria yellows teeth, so it’s a great idea to clean between your teeth daily with dental floss.
2. Use An Electric Toothbrush
New technology is rapidly replacing bristled toothbrushes. Electric toothbrushes are better at removing stains than non-electric ones. However, the American Dental Association (ADA), states that both electric and manual toothbrushes are effective at removing stains and preventing tooth decay.
Electric toothbrushes still have several advantages over manual brushes. They are able to vibrate rapidly and rotate in different directions. This helps remove plaque and prevent plaque buildup on the teeth. Plaque causes tooth discoloration, so an electric toothbrush is a great accessory to help keep teeth white.
Most electric toothbrushes have timers built in so that you’ll brush teeth long enough to remove plaque from the gums and the teeth.
Electric toothbrushes are great toothbrushing motivators too. People seem more inclined to brush their teeth regularly when they use an electric toothbrush. They are also safe for the gums.
An electric toothbrush is one of the important items you should seriously consider making an investment in. Your teeth will likely be healthier, with little to no plaque buildup and cleaner and whiter teeth.
3. Eat Foods That Help Keep Teeth White
Certain foods not only help strengthen teeth and gums, but they also help whiten teeth and remove stains.
The sulfur content in raw onions prevents the formation of plaque. Of course, your breath will not be optimum, but you can always use an anti-plaque mouthwash after eating the onions.
The saliva in our mouths acts as a tooth cleanser. Eating apples stimulate the production of saliva to rinse stains away. It is also healthy for the gums.
Some foods act as stain scrubbers. Some vegetables are abrasive, removing stains from the teeth while you chew. Think of any other foods that are abrasive in texture and make sure there is no sugar content. These foods can also scrub away stains.
Nuts, celery sticks, carrots, and broccoli are just a few examples of vegetable teeth cleaners.
Strawberries help to remove stains from teeth. Strawberries contain malic acid, which is a natural stain remover.
4. Avoid Foods That Cause Staining
You may already be aware of some of the more obvious food and drink culprits that stain teeth. If you do imbibe in any of these, be sure to brush your teeth afterward.
- Coffee
- Red Wine
- Balsamic vinegar
- Soda
- Snacks loaded with sugar
- Blueberries
- Blackberries
Note that blueberries and blackberries squirt out liquid when you squeeze them in your hand. They release either dark blue or black fluid and these go directly onto the teeth. While these fruits are healthy it’s advised to clean your teeth after eating them.
Many people drink coffee, but still find time to clean their teeth afterward. If you drink coffee as most of us do, try to rinse off your teeth with a plaque removing mouthwash.
Note that energy drinks contain sugar, and these too can make teeth less white.
Even rinsing with water within a half hour of drinking coffee will remove any stain buildup there is, and your teeth will be clean and free the bacteria responsible for staining the teeth.
5. Use Whitening Toothpaste
Toothpaste that claims to whiten teeth actually removes surface stains from coffee, smoking and the foods mentioned above. Whitening toothpaste contains peroxide as well as an abrasive agent to scrub away stains from the surface.
Whitening toothpaste that contains blue covarine, clings to the surface of the teeth and creates something like an optical illusion, which makes teeth appear white even when they are actually yellow.
Whitening toothpaste takes anywhere from two weeks to six weeks to whiten the teeth. Even though the toothpaste contains the whitening and abrasive agents, it is just as safe to use as regular toothpaste.
6. Brushing With Blue Covarine
Toothpaste with blue covarine in them will whiten teeth immediately. Blue covarine successfully reduces the color in teeth by leaving particles of its blue agent behind on the teeth, which gives the teeth a whiter appearance. It does this by creating an optical change in the teeth’s appearance.
There is a field of research called “Color Science” that developed the blue covarine chemical. When you want your clothes to look a brilliant white, you add bluing to the wash. Blue covarine is the same concept except it uses chemicals safe for placing in the mouth.
The kinds of toothpaste that contain blue covarine are silica-based and have been shown to successfully reduce the appearance of yellow on teeth significantly.
In addition, the blue covarine that is used (within safe levels) the whiter teeth became in tests. The change form yellow to white occurs immediately after the first brushing.
7. Use Whitening Strips
This is a fast, relatively inexpensive way to remove yellow and replace it with white. Test after test concludes that whitening strips actually work. In a manner of days, teeth whiten and stay that way for some time. After whitening, make sure to brush with whitening toothpaste to remove any coffee or tobacco stains, as well as staining from foods.
8. Brushing With Baking Soda As An Alternative
Baking soda is useful for dozens of purposes, and many kinds of toothpaste are formulated with baking soda. In addition, it’s a mild abrasive that helps remove, or scrape off, tooth staining.
Baking soda also provides an alkaline environment in the mouth, replacing the acidic state of the mouth. When the mouth is low in alkaline and high in acidic levels, bacteria grows that can impact your teeth and cause discoloration. Baking soda converts to alkaline, killing bacteria and allowing for a clean environment in the mouth.
Baking soda also is effective in removing plaque. Plaque is a sticky, film-like substance that covers the teeth and is full of bacteria that causes teeth to yellow and which causes cavities. Baking soda has been found to remove the filmy plaque and eliminate harmful bacteria at the same time.
Mix one teaspoon of baking soda in two teaspoons of water and make a paste. Apply the paste to teeth and brush with a toothbrush. It is recommended that you do this about three times a week. The paste is also abrasive so it will deep clean teeth.
As a suggestion, you can brush with baking soda each time before applying whitening strips.
9. You Can Rinse Your Mouth With Oil
Rinsing your mouth with oil, or “oil Pulling” as it is traditionally referred to, has been used for hundreds of years as a way to cleanse the mouth of harmful bacteria.
Native Americans once used sesame oil or sunflower oil for oil pulling. Actually, any oil is fine, as it is the oil itself, and not its source, that provides the therapeutic benefits.
Coconut oil is recommended because of its taste, as opposed to olive oil or vegetable oil. Take one tablespoon of coconut oil and wait until it converts to liquid form. Swish it around inside your mouth for about 15 minutes.
It’s not clear whether oil pulling whitens teeth, but it will kill all the bacteria in the mouth that causes teeth to yellow. You can, do the oil pulling procedure first before either brushing with whitening toothpaste or wearing whitening strips.
10. Banana Peel And Orange Rind
Both banana skin and orange rinds are jam-packed with vitamins and minerals. The orange rind is loaded with vitamin C, which is loaded with antioxidants that kill mouth bacteria.
Rub your teeth for a couple of minutes with either and you’ll be killing free radicals in your mouth. Germs and dangerous bacteria can enter the blood through the mouth. Your mouth is waging war throughout the day between germs, bacteria and free radicals, and an alkaline, relatively bacteria-free environment.
Eating sugary foods, or starchy foods, without brushing will result in the production of germs in your mouth. The cleaner you keep your mouth, the less chance your body will fall ill from disease.
Not only will your body be healthy from taking steps to keep it clean, whether you gargle with salt water, swish oil around your mouth, rub orange rind or banana peel over your teeth, tooth brushing, anti-plaque mouthwash, and the host of other recommendations in this article, you will see an improvement in the color of your teeth. The secret is to keep the mouth as alkaline as possible so bacterial don’t develop
11. Washing Hands Before Eating
Our hands pick up an amazing amount of bacteria every day. We handle money, use public bathrooms, and clean the house, coming into contact with dirt, and much more.
When we eat, we transfer the bacteria on the fingers to the mouth, and these germs and bacteria find a warm, wet environment in our mouths. Think about the last time you ate food with your fingers, chicken, ribs, French fries or you picked off pieces of food shared with other people.
When you wash your hands first, whether using your fingers o a fork to eat, you will not transfer anything dangerous to your mouth. Every day we deal with microbes, some healthy and some very unhealthy. The problem is, we can’t see them. Some of these microbes make our teeth yellow, or make us ill, and so on. Bend to the side of caution and wash your hands as much as you can during the day, because we don’t keep track of how many times we touch our lips with our fingers.
12. Hydrogen Peroxide As A Mouthwash
Hydrogen peroxide contains a powerful bleaching agent. It also kills mouth bacteria. Hydrogen peroxide removes germs and bacteria that could infect an open wound. For hundreds of years, people have used hydrogen peroxide to cleans cuts and wounds to prevent infection. This same property kills harmful bacteria in your mouth.
If you peruse the toothpaste section of any store, you’ll see some products contain hydrogen peroxide. Several research studies were conducted on toothpaste containing at least 1% hydrogen peroxide, and they concluded that at the 1% level, the peroxide made teeth significantly whiter.
It’s important not to introduce more than 1.5% hydrogen peroxide to the mouth; if the solution is too strong, it can cause gum irritation and tooth sensitivity.
Prepare a mouthwash using an inexpensive bottle of mouthwash you purchase at any drug store. Add water to dilute, then gargle for 1 minute.
13. Professional Supervision Of Teeth Whitening Procedure
There are many certified dental professionals who know how to whiten teeth safely and effectively. Best of all, they do the work for you and know the concentrations of chemicals needed to whiten your teeth in as little as one day.
When you go for a teeth whitening procedure, you sit back in a dentist’s chair. Your mouth is pulled back so there is no skin contact with your teeth.
Next, a whitening gel is applied that has hydrogen peroxide in the solution, which is a powerful bleaching agent.
The gel stays on your teeth for anywhere from 15 minutes to a half hour, depending on how yellow your teeth are. The gel is removed, and the procedure is often repeated. By the end of the treatment, you can have bright, white teeth.
Note that getting teeth from a deep yellow to a brilliant white in one day is quite costly. You can pay up to $700.00 to get it done, and it isn’t covered by insurance. There will be instructions on when you can eat, and what you can eat after you leave the dentist’s office.
14. Apple Cider Vinegar And Lemon
The combination of these two ingredients not only cleans the mouth but also removes stains from the teeth. The mixture is a one-quarter tablespoon of lemon with two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.
Brush your teeth with the lemon and the vinegar as you normally do. Do this only one time per week, brushing with these ingredients more than that will not benefit the mouth since the lemon is highly acidic.
All of these methods serve two main purposes. One is removing bacteria and germs from the moth. These bacteria contain free radicals and they wear down teeth and yellow them.
The teeth are located in the mouth, the most germ-filled environment in our bodies. It is believed that dogs have cleaner mouths than humans.
Using antibacterial products gets rid of the bacteria and slows down the yellowing process.
Removing bacteria combined with using whitening agents including hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and blue covarine will make your teeth whiter and your mouth healthier.
Try to eat fruits like strawberries, and avoid others like blueberries, to keep your mouth fresh and clean. Many vegetables are coarse to chew, and they act as natural cleaning agents for the teeth.
White teeth are desirable, and if you’re willing to make some fundamental changes, you will enjoy having pearly white teeth most of your life.