hydrogen peroxide - the ultimate teeth whitener?

Wednesday Jan 2nd 2008

Hydrogen peroxide is probably something you’ve seen before but never really paid much attention to it. You can find it at any pharmacy like Walgreen’s or CVS, it comes in a brown bottle and it’s cheap. The reason for the brown bottle is because it’s light sensitive.

You can in fact use “straight” hydrogen peroxide as a teeth whitener. It works very well and you will see results after only a few days.

Hydrogen peroxide is used in many teeth whitening products. The next time you’re in the mouthwash aisle, look at Listerine Whitening. It’s a solid white bottle and the 3rd or 4th ingredient listed is hydrogen peroxide.

Hydrogen peroxide has no taste whatsoever. You would think it does but it doesn’t.

Here’s the things you should know, in Q/A style:

Can you swish it?

Yes, but DO NOT swallow it else you’ll get super sick. This is why all mouthwash products tell you not to swallow. The same applies to hydrogen peroxide.

In addition, you will get “electric tongue”. Your tongue will tingle in way you may not like.

I don’t swish it. You can if you want, but I don’t.

Is it safe for your gums?

If you have sensitive gums, no. And even if you don’t have sensitive gums the peroxide may cause them to be sensitive later.

How do you use it?

This is my method:

Pour some peroxide into a small cup.
Rinse toothbrush with water.
Dip toothbrush into peroxide (no toothpaste involved) so all the bristles are soaked evenly.
Brush manually (no electric toothbrushes - they don’t work as well). You will see the peroxide foam up on your teeth like it’s supposed to.
Dip 2 or 3 more times, continue to brush normally.
When done, rinse mouth with water, rinse out toothbrush.

After this I will brush again with regular toothpaste, floss and use Listerine Cool Mint to swish water afterwards.

It’s totally worth the extra 2 to 3 minutes to do all this.

My experience

My teeth got whiter after using straight peroxide for only 2 days. It was noticeable.

Final notes

You will not get any sort of “clean feeling” from using peroxide. It’s all visual. Go by what you see.

Peroxide does not replace toothpaste whatsoever. You should still brush with the paste afterwards.

Peroxide does nothing for breath (hence the reason I use the Cool Mint Listerine after brushing the 2nd time).

If peroxide makes your gums too sensitive, consider using Listerine Whitening instead. It’s essentially a “watered down” version but it does the exact same thing as it does have hydrogen peroxide in it. And compared to straight peroxide you can swish it without experiencing any electric-tongue. :-) But it doesn’t work as fast as straight peroxide does.