Recently, while at Target picking up toothpaste, I noticed that the oral care aisle is starting to look more and more like the skincare aisle. Sure, there were the typical tubes of Crest value packs, but there were also sophisticatedly designed electric toothbrushes, organic mouthwashes, and other fancy-looking oral hygiene products. This got me wondering: Do teeth need their own beauty regiment? Here’s a rundown of some oral beauty products and practices to consider adding to your personal hygiene routine.
Of course, we all need to maintain our teeth and gums, but there are a lot of accessible products out there tackling tooth beautification, mostly focused on whitening. Whitening toothpaste, strips, and other at-home systems have been around for quite some time, but now there are more gadgets and high-tech options for whitening and brightening teeth.
Moon Oral Beauty is a company that features brushes, pastes, and more impressive whitening tools, such as its Platinum Pro Glow Teeth Whitening Device. This glowing mouth guard works with their strips to whiten teeth as well as promote gum health and fresh breath via exposure to various LED lights. If used twice a day for 15-minute cycles, this device can improve teeth’s shade in one week.
Colgate also boasts an LED device in their Optic White ComfortFit Teeth Whitening Kit, which boasts that it can remove 10 years of stains in just three days.
Fiddling around with devices, while effective, may feel a bit too complicated for your daily brushing routine. For a less extreme treatment, check out Tarte’s Pearly Girl Vegan Teeth Whitening Pen. This pen dispenses a whitening gel directly onto your teeth for an instant glow-up of your enamel with a recommended use of four times daily.
Good old Colgate also has whitening pens. Their version is an overnight product to be applied after you brush at bedtime to work as you sleep and brush off in the morning, promising to reduce stains in one week.
If using a pen or gloss, I’d also recommend a dental check retractor to widen your mouth and keep lips cleared from your teeth while applying and waiting for the whitening agent to set. You can pick up disposable packs from Amazon.
There are also whitening products that work like makeup, such as Hismile’s Glostick Tooth Gloss. This instant tooth brightener adds a pearlescent glow to your teeth when applied, and like cosmetics, may need to be touched up throughout the day to maintain a whiter look. Another similar on-the-go option available from Target is the Lumineux Bright2 Dual Action Stain Repellent & Whitening Pen. Apply 30 minutes before eating or drinking, and this essential oil-based formulation is meant to block stains from coffee, tea, red wine, etc.
It seems straightforward enough, but in all honesty, when I need coffee or red wine, for that matter, I don’t know if I can wait 30 minutes.
Of course, just switching up your current toothpaste and mouthwash may be all you need to enhance your smile. There are tons of whitening pastes, but so many of the main drugstore brands don’t seem that different one from the other.
A new trend in toothpaste that looks promising is purple paste. PurelyWhite Deluxe’s Advanced Brightening Serum is designed for the purple to counteract yellow discoloration for a whiter smile. And yes, Colgate and Crest also have purple options.
On the flip side of purple is activated charcoal paste. Charcoal soap and clay masks for the face have been around for a while, and now charcoal is working its way into your mouth. Hello’s Charcoal-Whitening toothpaste is made with tea tree oil and coconut oil and is fluoride-free. Boka’s Charcoal-Yuzu Mint Whitening n-Ha toothpaste is made from yuzu citrus and mint, as well as calcium to help strengthen enamel.
Regardless of your toothpaste, you should definitely floss for your general health. While flossing can be a chore, it can also be kind of fun, especially with CocoFloss’s flavored dental floss. They have the classic mint, strawberry, watermelon, cake, and chocolate-flavored floss. So, if getting your little ones or your big ones to floss is a struggle, try to entice them with their favorite flavor.
Along with flossing is rinsing. Mouthwash can also work to whiten teeth, but its bigger role in oral beauty is mostly to kill off germs and keep gums healthy.
As recommended by my dentist, I use ACT’s Anticavity Mouthwash in the evenings, while in the morning, I start the day with Essential Oxygen’s Mouthwash + Brushing Rinse. Yep, two different mouthwashes, one for morning and one for night. Plus, my kids have their own ACT mouthwash, which is watermelon-flavored. Needless to say, our sink is very crowded.
Another doctor’s recommendation you may want to add to your routine is using a water pick. My daughter’s orthodontist suggested getting one as we begin her journey with braces. Waterpik’s Water Flosser for Kids features a small, safe, and simple design for easy use by little hands. There’s also Bixdo’s A30 Pro Water Dental Flosser, which is cordless and more portable, taking up less space by the sink.
In general, the idea of oral beauty is really just building off of what dentists have been advising for years: twice-daily brushing, flossing, and rinsing. If you want to play around with different products for your already established routine or add in some high-tech LED devices to enhance your smile, hopefully, this will give you a few ideas to get started.
