Can lemon and baking soda solution help teeth whitening?

Hyderabad: A Facebook post with a natural teeth-whitening solution has gone viral on social media.

The viral post read, “Natural Teeth Whitener-> Dip a cotton ball into the lemon juice and baking soda solution and apply it to your teeth. Let the lemon and baking soda solution sit on your teeth for around a minute. Brush your teeth to remove the acid. Do this once a week until desired results are achieved.”

They are super-effective, the post added.

It is natural for a person’s teeth to become less white as they age. Many people turn to home remedies to try to get rid of yellow teeth. Some of these home remedies with natural ingredients may cause more harm than living with yellow teeth.

Let’s find out the truth.

Fact check

We found a study to compare commercial dentifrices containing 20% to 65% baking soda and commercial dentifrices without baking soda in enhancing plaque removal efficacy of tooth brushing. A recognizable effect on removing plaque from teeth in less than 24 hours.

“The collective results from the five controlled clinical studies on over 270 subjects reported in this paper, consistently demonstrate that Arm & Hammer baking soda dentifrices enhanced plaque removal effectiveness of tooth brushing to a significantly greater extent than the non-baking soda dentifrice products,” the study said.

Another study, however, said: “From all drinks, Cola and Cola light showed the least erosivity (p<0.001, ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test) whereas lemon juice showed statistically significant higher erosivity than all other drinks except Sprite and apple juice (p<0.01, ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test).”

Let us not ignore the fact that both ingredients have benefits when used individually. Baking soda has a pH of about 9, meaning it’s basic. Lemon juice has a pH of about 2, meaning it’s very acidic.

Baking soda and lemon juice have been praised for whitening teeth, curing acne, and erasing scars. Still, others insist that combining the two is dangerous for both your teeth and skin. While there haven’t been many studies done on using both ingredients together, there are several studies that look at the cosmetic benefits of baking soda and lemon juice individually, said Healthline.

These studies, combined with information about the pH of both baking soda and lemon juice, suggest that each of these ingredients may have benefits on its own. However, you might want to think twice before combining them, it added.

It is evident that baking soda and lemon are not reliable home remedies to try for teeth whitening.

Hence, the claim is false.