Turmeric is one of the latest Eastern-meets-Western beauty crazes. Turmeric can apparently be used for weight loss, inflammation, better skin, energy, and even to whiten teeth? When I started to research the whitening properties of turmeric, all I could find were a few blogs claiming its benefits, and a few women brushing their teeth with some sort of turmeric mixture including baking soda and coconut oil. Since the information was pretty lacking, I decided to try for myself to see, can turmeric whiten teeth?
Before
As you can see, I’ve been drinking a bit too much coffee and desperately needed some sort of whitening treatment.
I didn’t know what recipe to make, but since all of the ones I saw other people use included other ingredients, I thought the test would be most accurate if I just used turmeric.
At first, I tried to measure it out, but then I became too impatient with the shaker. I ended putting about 2tsp in the bowl. After that, I added water until it formed a thick enough paste to put on my teeth.
During
After I made my paste, it was time to put it on my teeth. I decided that I would leave it on for thirty minutes, like I would a whitening strip. I rubbed it on with my finger. It was extremely unpleasant, it tasted like I was rubbing powder-ier, earthier dirt into my teeth. I stopped swallowing and my mouth filled up with spit, which started to wash the turmeric off my teeth. I swallowed, and the turmeric still came off my teeth.
This picture is blurry because I took it super fast. I decided I needed to put something over my teeth because keeping the turmeric on was extremely unpleasant, but figured I needed to snap a picture first. I was going to use saran wrap but the box was new and I couldn’t open it fast enough (I was honestly so uncomfortable that it made me frantic af), so I just settled on aluminum foil.
I made a little teeth-sized square and put the rest of the turmeric paste on the inside since I felt like so much of it had already come off from hanging out in my mouth.
The foil kind of hurt my teeth a little bit, but it wasn’t unbearable. I only have one filling but if you have multiple, I’d recommend using saran wrap. After my teeth were covered I felt a lot more comfortable swallowing. I didn’t try talking, eating, or drinking, so I don’t know how that would have worked out. But still, the 30 minutes went by pretty fast.
After
I went to the bathroom and pulled off my foil. The taste and texture of pure turmeric in my mouth surprised me almost as much as it did the first time. The corners of my mouth were stained yellow. Gulp. I started to wash off the turmeric. I didn’t want to stain my toothbrush, so I rubbed some off with my fingers, then rinsed my mouth with water until my spit was clear. It was finally time to look in the mirror.
Oh my God. My teeth were stained yellow! Was this some cruel life lesson about being happy with what you have? I went to get some baking soda and a toothbrush, which I actually use often as a whitening method (specifically this), and hoped for the best.
To my surprise, my teeth were actually pretty white. They were glistening and bright and stain free. I use baking soda regularly and this isn’t the result I typically get, so I can personally attest to turmerics teeth whitening properties.
It was hard for me to capture my results on my camera, so I tried a few different lightings.
In conclusion, can turmeric whiten teeth? Yes, but I’m not sure if the process is worth the results. Personally, I’d rather just use the whitening strips. But for turmeric fanatics who don’t mind the taste, or people looking for inexpensive and/or natural ways to whiten their teeth, turmeric is promising.