Natural teeth whitening can be a cost effective and natural way to whiten your teeth. However they will generally have the least impact on the colouring of your teeth and are only useful in cases where there is a very slight discoloration. The methods which are naturally based span from ingesting certain food stuffs to rubbing materials on the teeth to act as an abrasive to clean the teeth. Below is a list of the most common remedies which have been mentioned in the context of teeth whitening.
Certain vegetables which are hard work to masticate such as celery, broccoli, and carrots are provide natural abrasions, this acts as little toothbrushes in the mouth and can remove stays, though care must be taken to remove all debris after eating as especially with celery food stuffs can get stuck between teeth. Leaving this there for any length of time can lead to irritation and to more build up of bacteria, which can lead to more teeth damage.
Also known as wood ash. This is applied by brushing with the wood ash. The active ingredient in lye is potassium hydroxide found in lye acts as a bleaching agent. This will cause the teeth to whiten. It is not recommended as the active ingredient can harm the enamel in your teeth. the lye also has a very bitter taste.
Baking soda (also known as Sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydrogen carbonate) is applied to the teeth for teeth whitening using a tooth brush, care must be taken around the gums so as to not irritate them. It has been used for many centuries to clean teeth and keep them whiter. In combination with salt it can be efficacious in the removal of stains and marks. The baking soda also terminates bacteria and thus reduces the rate at which teeth are discolored. Using this can be a very cost effective way to whiten teeth if the teeth have only minimal darkening.
Lemon juice can be applied either by brush the juice onto teeth using a toothbrush or by rubbing the peel over the teeth. It not a recommended way to whiten teeth as the way it is brightening the teeth is by removing the calcium from the tooth enamel. The problem with this is that the teeth will tend to decay faster with less calcium so more dentist visits could be in the pipe line.
To use strawberries they must first be mashed into a pulp then brushed directly onto the teeth. Strawberries work in a similar way to lemon juice, the acid from the strawberries weakens the enamel and the seeds from the strawberry can cause abrasive damage to both gums and tooth enamel. For these reasons it is also not recommended.
All these remedies suffer from either being fairly ineffective or potentially harmful for your teeth. To get a much more dramatic effects looking into laser whitening or home teeth whitening these solutions are both inexpensive and give results which last for up to 3 years.