What are the magical benefits of brushing teeth with baking soda?

Anyone who has studied chemistry knows that the baking soda that people often consume is actually sodium bicarbonate, which is a white crystal. Baking soda dissolves in water to form sodium carbonate. Therefore, baking soda is widely used both in industry and in life. For example, when people make pasta, baking soda is an indispensable leavening agent. In addition to these uses, what other wonderful uses does baking soda have in life?

Baking soda for brushing teeth:

1. Why do teeth turn yellow?

Everyone's teeth are pure white at the beginning of growth and development, but due to various reasons, the teeth change color.

There are three main reasons for tooth color change - intrinsic, exogenous, and aging.

Exogenous, as the name suggests, means that the teeth change color due to external factors. Common factors include: smoking, drinking (especially red wine), drinking tea, drinking coffee, drinking carbonated drinks, etc. These behaviors can easily cause various dental plaques such as smoke stains, tea stains and tartar to accumulate on the teeth, causing changes in the color of the teeth. In addition, drinking Chinese medicine regularly can also change the color of your teeth.

Endogenous means that the teeth change due to various reasons during the development process. For example, if you take too many tetracycline drugs or drink water with too high fluoride content. These two types of teeth are clinically called "tetracycline teeth" and "fluorosis teeth". Tetracycline teeth are more common in young people in their thirties and forties. In the past, tetracyclines were a very commonly used antibiotic, used for diseases such as diarrhea and colds. Tetracycline drugs can also be absorbed through the placenta and affect the color of deciduous teeth developing during the fetal period.

Age-related tooth decay means that as you age, your teeth will slowly wear away, and then reparative dentin will appear. The color of reparative dentin is yellowish, so the older you are, the yellower your teeth will become.

2. Specific methods of brushing teeth with baking soda

One is to sprinkle baking soda (edible alkali) on the toothpaste when brushing your teeth, and then brush your teeth; the other is to mix baking soda and salt with a little water, and use it as toothpaste with a toothbrush.

3. The principle of brushing teeth with baking soda to whiten teeth

Brushing your teeth with baking soda only cleans them, it cannot whiten them. Brushing your teeth will not make them white. The reason they become white is because brushing away the visual effect created by the plaque, pigments, etc. on the tooth surface. Baking soda is a slightly corrosive cleaner and makes an excellent natural "tooth powder". Adding a little baking soda to toothpaste can neutralize odors and act as a whitening agent. In fact, this is the same principle as brushing your teeth with salt, which mainly whitens teeth through physical friction.

4. What are the effects of brushing teeth with baking soda?

In principle, brushing your teeth with baking soda will not affect your gums or oral cavity. Because baking soda dissolves quickly when it comes into contact with water, and the oral environment of people is mostly acidic after eating. When baking soda comes into contact with acid, it forms carbonic acid (carbon dioxide + water) and sodium ions. These three substances are harmless to the oral cavity.

However, baking soda itself is an alkaline substance. Using alkaline substances to brush your teeth for a long time will damage the tooth enamel and destroy the dentin. Moreover, the main ingredient of baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, and too much sodium in the body will have adverse effects on the body.

5. The effect of brushing teeth with baking soda

In summary, brushing your teeth with baking soda may have a certain "whitening" effect, but long-term use may cause damage to the teeth themselves. It is recommended to try it occasionally, but not to use it for a long time.