How to whiten teeth: For a start, avoid soft drinks

To actively whiten your teeth, try using a specialty bleaching kit. Such products can be used at home, often with dramatic results. Besides actively cleaning your teeth, you can also improve their luster by avoiding tooth-staining, cavity-causing foods and beverages. For example: ask a breath expert how to whiten teeth, and they will almost certainly tell you to avoid soft drinks.

Regularly drinking soda can do a real number on your teeth, no matter what your age. If you need an illustration of just how hard soft drinks can be on oral health, then look no farther than an experiment any child can easily try - namely, placing a recently lost tooth in a soft drink for several weeks.

According to the Columbia University News Service, the results are typically quite dramatic. Recently, the news source published photos of teeth that had been soaked in different beverages for 14 straight days. Compared to teeth left to sit in orange juice, chocolate milk, iced tea, fruit punch or even drain cleaner, a tooth soaked in cola is by far the darkest.

The problem with soft drinks is that they contain large amounts of sugars, as well as carbonic acid. These substances give your pearly whites a damaging one-two punch. Carbonic acid can gradually erode the protective coating of enamel on your teeth, while sugars give cavity-causing microbes sustenance.

No wonder a study published in the journal Pediatrics found that children who drank the largest amounts of soft drinks each week were most likely to suffer from cavities. The principle almost certainly holds true for unrestrained soda addicts of all ages.

So what the best way to learn how to whiten teeth? For starters, try looking into specialty tooth bleaching products. The most effective kits typically utilize tooth-molding mouthpieces to ensure even distribution of the bleaching agent.

In a more general sense, avoiding acidic soft drinks and other enamel-staining beverages is a great way to keep your teeth their whitest.