Fact Check: Don’t use baking soda as teeth whitening hack: Viral hack debunked

Hyderabad: A teeth whitening hack has gone viral on social media. Users claim that baking soda could be used as a teeth-whitening home remedy.

In the viral post advised people to make a teeth whitening magic portion by mixing toothpaste, baking soda, lemon, and turmeric once a week.

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

NewsMeter found the claim to be misleading.

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 study found out that 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.

Contradicting the above study, another study says: “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, says 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, they added.

Baking soda and lemon is not reliable home remedy for tooth whitening.

Hence, the claim is false.