Miss Terri investigates................. Bicarbonate of Soda!

So I'm thinking of doing a series where I investigate different beauty treatments etc and see if they work. I'm not sure if it'll make interesting reading but I think it'll be a fun thing to do and I might just find some new tricks!

First up, using baking soda/bicarbonate of soda to clean teeth!

I'm pretty lucky to have teeth that are generally quite white but since I started drinking coffee regularly I've definitely noticed some slight discolouration. I looked into some of the teeth whitening products you can buy in the shops but got a bit scared about how to use them so I opted for a natural approach first.

Apparently you can use bicarbonate of soda in a ton of different ways from cleaning your whole kitchen to putting out fires (and I've just been chucking it in cake mixtures tsk!). Maybe I'll try cleaning my hairbrushes with it at some point but for now I'm just brushing my teeth with it. Here is my initial photo to show where I started at.....

I've always wanted a close up of my mouth...urgh

They're really not too bad at all but there is some discolouration to the canines and I'm fussy!

I started a few weeks ago using a bit of bicarb on my toothbrush with some water and brushing gently for two minutes. At first I did this every other night but after eight days I switched to just every five nights as it's quite abrasive to your tooth enamel. I also brushed as normal for teeth and mouth hygiene. Luckily I have always weirdly enjoyed brushing my teeth so this never felt like a problem. It did confuse my housemates to find bicarb in the bathroom though!

One thing to warn of is that it doesn't taste very nice so it's not particularly pleasant but my teeth did feel super clean afterwards so I ploughed on. After three weeks, this was the result..............

To look in the mirror I can't see a difference but there is perhaps a slight one in the photos. I took the photos at the same time of day in the same place to try and give an accurate representation. I think I might have seen some more dramatic results if I had had a big problem when I started but as my teeth were fairly white to begin with there wasn't much change. 

Overall I'm not sure it's worth the disgusting taste unless you have bad staining to start with. Having said that I'd be tempted to do this from time to time to give my teeth a bit more of a deep-clean as they felt lovely after. For now though it's back to the baking cupboard for my bicarb!