When it comes to looking and feeling good, one thing many of us want is a great smile. A bright and white smile can provide a confidence boost wherever we are going. This starts with your teeth, maintaining oral health and keeping them looking clean and white. In this post, we check out the best whitening toothpaste.
Your mouth is often one of the first things people notice, so it’s important to keep it looking at its best. Many foods and drinks we consume on a day-to-day basis can cause teeth staining. This includes popular beverages including tea, coffee and red wine.
All of these contain tannins, which cause colour compounds to stick to your teeth and produce a yellow effect. If you are like us and love a regular cup of coffee most days, the effect can soon become noticeable. The most dramatic and powerful way to whiten teeth is through a whitening procedure at your dentist.
This will usually involve bleaching the teeth with peroxide to a white colour. While these results can often be most noticeable, many of us are looking for a way to maintain whiter teeth at-home and during our everyday lifestyle. Luckily, whitening toothpaste has come a long way in recent years and can now provide great results, with regular use, at home.
The aim of whitening toothpaste is to remove the surface stains which have built up over months or even years of regular consumption of foods which can stain teeth.
Best whitening toothpaste UK
There are many kinds of whitening toothpaste online claiming to produce results. This includes activated charcoal and coconut oil. The results can vary hugely based on the products used and also the condition of your teeth to begin with. Take a look below at our favourite whitening toothpaste products for 2021.
Colgate Max White Expert Complete Whitening
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The Colgate brand is one of the most well known and popular toothpaste brands on the market. The Max White Expert range features a number of toothpaste products to give your teeth whitening a real boost. Our favourite is the Complete Whitening version.
This toothpaste has been professionally designed to reverse years of yellowing through a dual-action formula. The ingredients include the same whitening ingredient used by dentists to remove deep set-in stains. This product is also completely enamel friendly, meaning it can be used daily.
We really like that this toothpaste contains optic whiteners. The advanced brighteners provide an instant temporary effect to make your teeth appear whiter. Therefore you should see results pretty quickly, even before the stains have been removed.
Oral-B 3D White Treatment Toothpaste & Accelerator
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Oral-B is another hugely popular brand when it comes to maintaining oral health, perhaps most well-known for its range of electric toothbrushes. This 3D white lux professional treatment contains not just a toothpaste, but also an accelerator to amplify the results. The two-step treatment aims to remove up to 100 percent of stains in just 3 days.
The first step is the toothpaste which removes surface stains for a brighter and whiter smile. The second step is to use the whitening accelerator. This works to accelerate stain removal by stopping new stains from forming. A protective shield is formed on the teeth for up to 24 hours to prevent new stains from reaching them.
Marvis Whitening Mint Toothpaste
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You may not have heard of Marvis before, but the brand has become a massive hit on Amazon, with over 4000 reviews on their teeth whitening toothpaste. The most unique feature about this whitening toothpaste is the massive amount of flavours available which will leave a long-lasting taste sensation.
Some of the flavours include ginger mint, cinnamon mint and liquorice mint. The specially formulated whitening toothpaste removes discolouration from teeth and helps prevent tooth decay. This luxury toothpaste is made in Italy and there is even a gift set available.
iWhite Dark Stains Toothpaste
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For those with dark or yellow stains from regular tea or coffee consumption, this whitening toothpaste is for you. The iWhite brand produces a full range of whitening products includes toothbrushes and a stain eraser. This triple-action formula contains activated charcoal to restore the natural white of teeth and improve mouth health.
Activated charcoal works by latching onto and removing plague and other stain-causing food ingredients leftover in the mouth. Fluoride is also present to strengthen and remineralise the teeth. When the micro-pearls in this formula get broken down, the activated charcoal is released to absorb up particles. This toothpaste also produces a protective layer which protects the enamel and avoids the creation of new stains.
Pearl Drops Strong Polished White Toothpolish
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Pearl Drops have been working for over 50 years on research and development of whitening products. This strong whitening tooth polish uses dental-grade polishing agents to produce a polished, dentist cleaned feeling. The tooth polish aims to produce teeth that are up to four shades whiter in just three weeks.
The low-abrasion formula contains essential fluoride and plague removers for healthier and stronger teeth. The Pearl Drops range actually features lots of whitening products. Our favourite is this enamel strengthening version to maintain healthy teeth.
Why use a whitening toothpaste?
The reason to use a whitening toothpaste is to get a smile you feel confident with. It’s important to remember that a whitening toothpaste will not change the natural colour of the tooths surface. Instead, it works to remove surface stains that have built up over time.
Many of our favourite foods and drinks can lead to yellow or stained teeth over time. This includes common drinks we are all aware of such as tea and coffee. But many additional drinks you may not be as familiar with can cause teeth staining including cola, tomato sauces and berries.
Many of these will contain tannins which can cause a yellowing effect on teeth. Furthermore, acidic foods and drinks such as cola can lead to additional wear on teeth, making them more likely to stain. As a rule of thumb, if a food can stain your clothes, it can potentially stain your teeth as well.
How does whitening toothpaste work?
As discussed, whitening toothpastes do not actually whiten the surface of the teeth, instead, they work to remove built-up surface stains, which creates a whiter looking smile. Many toothpaste products help to remove surface stains, but a whitening toothpaste can often go further and use more ingredients designed for whitening. The whitening effect of removing surface stains is not going to happen straight away. It can take several weeks of constant use to begin to see noticeable results.
Firstly, they contain special abrasive compounds that work to gently polish the teeth, such as silica. The gentle abrasive ingredients work to scrub the surface of the teeth and begin to lift away the stains. These are known as the extrinsic stains that build up over time. Removing these can begin to reveal the whiter teeth underneath.
Some whitening toothpastes begin to contain further ingredients that aim to dissolve and breakdown strains. Hydrogen peroxide can be found in some whitening toothpastes, but the strength is very low, due to not being available in consumer products under European law. Activated charcoal has been a very popular ingredient in tooth whitening products in recent years. It is claimed that activated charcoal can latch onto plague and food particles in your teeth and remove them when it is removed from your mouth.
Some whitening toothpaste products, often marked as optic whitening, contain an ingredient called blue covarine. This ingredient sticks to teeth when brushing and can create an effect which makes teeth appear whiter. This is great for before big events where you want to be looking your best, but the effect is only temporary.
Further tips to prevent teeth stains
Preventing teeth from any further staining is a great idea to maximise the results you see from a whitening toothpaste. While not consuming many of our favourite beverages may give the best results, we don’t’ have to give them up, fortunately. Take a look at some of these top tips below
Drink with a straw
Each time we sip drinks, they often brush straight over the teeth at the front of our mouths. Using a straw is a great way to prevent this. With a staw, all the liquid goes straight to the parts of your mouth which are less visible, therefore any staining will be reduced to just those areas. There are lots of metal straws which can be purchased for less than £5 on Amazon, which are better for the environment and also work with hot drinks.
Follow up with water & then brush
After you have consumed a drink such as coffee, it can often linger in your mouth, leaving it in your teeth to stain and discolour. Once you have finished drinking, it’s a great idea to follow up with some water. This will help lift any leftover food and drink from the surface of your teeth, without damaging it.
Brushing or swilling with mouth wash can also clean the mouth and prevent bacteria build-up. Acidic drinks can weaken the tooth and so you should not brush within 30 minutes of consuming acidic food or drinks.
Speed it up, no sipping
Slowly sipping your coffee can cause it to linger around longer in your mouth, potentially leading to further staining. Instead, try to consume it over a shorter period where it won’t be around as long. Another option is to cut down on the amount you are consuming. For example, substituting coffee with a cup of green tea or even drinking more water instead of cola.
Use an electric toothbrush
We all know brushing your teeth is the foundation of good oral hygiene, but the type of toothbrush we use can have a bigger impact than you may think. While both manual and electric toothbrushes are beneficial for removing plaque, electric toothbrushes have a number of additional benefits. The vibrations from electric toothbrushes create movements each time they go over the teeth. This leads to removing plaque more effectively.
Summary
We hope you enjoyed this roundup of the best teeth whitening toothpaste products in the UK for 2021. We all want to maintain a great smile, but many of our favourite food and drinks can get in the way. Tannin in many flavour foods can eventually lead to extrinsic stains being left on the tooths surface.
While professional whitening will often produce the strongest results, there are many at-home products which can help. Whitening toothpaste products work to gently lift the surface staining of the teeth, revealing the whiter colour underneath. We always recommend speaking to a dentist or medical professional before trying out any of these products yourself.
Which whitening toothpaste will you be using next? Let us know in the comments below.
