Gritty Grills = Pearly Whites

I brushed my teeth with charcoal today.

 

... yeah. I did.

The abbreviated history of my nutritional life growing up:
I was adopted and raised by a homeopathic mother. My sister is now a vegan and a dula. I drank unpasteurized goat milk as a baby and teaspoons of flaxseed oil as a teenager. The word Organic in my house simply meant food, because rarely do you need to distinguish raw, natural product from something that isn't even in your house. My halloween candy disappeared as soon as I got it, and I knew the fundamentals of muscle connectivity as it pertained to reflexology pressure points before I graduated high school. The gap between taking so much as a Tylenol [aside from major surgery] ended this year when I took an Aleve and thus broke that dry spell of 16 years. I know the value of balancing nutrition, the dangers of crash dieting and several quirky natural tips & tricks that often outdo commercialized solutions to every day problems.

Charcoal is one of those. First, no, I'm not talking about the stuff you put in a barbeque. There will be at least one person out there who thinks that is interchangeable. I would not suggest that. Second, I'm still somewhat of an average human being, in that I am a] NOT a licensed physician, so if you're tuning into this rantish blog for the first time, please know this is my personal diatribe and reflects only my own experiences & insight. If you need medical advice, find someone who's probably still paying off a student loan for the accreditation they've earned...... and b] I still cheat on the strictly-organic lifestyle. There will always be someone out there who's more earthy than myself, and I'm okay with that. I'm still part of the minority in our population, believing that holistic lifestyles carry an absolute benefit.

thank you, amazon

A lot of people use charcoal tablets to help digest food and cleanse their systems after eating. In emergency situations, charcoal is used to help counteract drug overdose victims. Like I said, I'm not a doctor and I've never ingested even the recommended dosage of charcoal for that whole post-meal thing.

So yes, today I brushed my teeth with activated charcoal.
Here's where those quirky natural tricks come in. Activated charcoal has a natural property that can help whiten teeth. Didja know that? It of course takes a bit longer than bleaching or strips or even baking soda soaks, but it does work and ultimately does the job without reducing tooth enamel or density. Oh, and it's not a pretty process. You basically brush your teeth with activated charcoal powder and a toothbrush. It's black. It's gross looking [although entirely tasteless!] and will serve to show you how much you actually do splatter if you're one of those who denies getting toothpasted on the mirror.

If you're interested in doing this, there are a few things I would recommend, after my first go at this this evening.

empty capsules

First, the capsules I chose are the tubular gelatin ones that split in the middle. They're clear; the activated charcoal is a powder contained inside the capsules. I obviously over-estimated the adhesive properties of this powder with water - it does not gel up or become pasty with water. It just.. gets wet. Basically, don't split the capsule and attempt to dump or sprinkle it onto your tootbrush. You'll just create a huge mess. I would suggest either a toilet paper square or paper towel: open [also, I suggest scissors] the capsule and empty half of it, then dab your toothbrush on it. It's way easier to clean up and you won't have black powder everywhere.

Notes on the toothbrush: I used a new [cheap] firm-bristle brush for this, thinking that I would stain my regular toothbrush. After brushing for the recommended 5 minutes, I would strongly advise that you use whatever toothbrush you're comfortable using on a regular basis, because my gums... are sore. Hopefully your everyday brush has softer bristles. I was all about scrubbing, which I know even with regular brushing, really isn't recommended.... especially for 5 straight minutes.

Other FAQ's I knew I'd probably just answer by doing it myself:
- No, this stuff will not stain your lips, face or toothbrush.
- I don't have any artificial caps, teeth, veneers or braces, so I don't know how this would work on any of those things.
- Yes, I'd do this again and recommend it to someone else. (:

scrub-a-dub.... yuck.

^ Shmexy, right?
No... no... I spent the last few seconds before I plunged a charcoal-covered brush into my mouth wondering if in fact this would be the tasteless experience other users promised. Good news, IT IS. Seriously. I can't possibly be alone in knowing that whenever I focus specifically on NOT swallowing, my mouth inevitably produces an exorbitant amount of drool to irritate me [how's that for clinical reasoning?]. I was cautious not to swallow this mess, even though I know such a small amount really wouldn't do any harm. It just didn't look or sound like the best choice. So.... brush, brush... drool... spit... brush.. brushhhhh... repeat... for 5 minutes.

And yes, this is what I envisioned the entire time I was doing this:

[clip is from Bridesmaids... for all the copyright wolves out there: NO, I did NOT contribute to that scene and it's not my original material in any way shape or form... so don't go saying I said otherwise, eeerkay?]

The difference I saw between the pre and post wasn't dramatic like that after a white strip or a bleach or something, but, my teeth felt exponentially cleaner all the way around and I did notice a small adjustment in the hue. I compared against a piece of white cardstock..

top: before
bottom: after

Like I said, not a drastic change of shades, but for what it's worth, my mouth feels cleaner and my teeth definitely look a little brighter. I'll do this a couple more times over the next few weeks and see where I am then.[And you may not have noticed it, but it makes me crazy that my bottom teeth became crowded after braces corrected them in my elementary years... wisdom teeth are mean! These puppies are on the list of things that will be corrected soon.. very soon.]

Don't believe me that this works? That's fine. Don't do it. I don't get paid for this stuff; this is my personal blog and I would've posted this whether it did or didn't work. I'm all about trying something at least once, and if it works, I'll do it again. A couple folks I know have tried this as well: One of them saw no results until somewhere around the third or fourth time she tried it, and another one swore she noticed it immediately. I'm kind of right in the middle there, but I'll keep to it and see what happens.

So yeah. What little trepidation I did have about doing this was leveled first by the core understanding of charcoal's benefit to the human body [again, thanks Mom & sister for the early lessons] and tested by just doing it for myself. Everybody's body reacts differently to stuff like this, so who knows - it may or may not work for you right away. Give a shot though, if you don't mind looking like you've just eaten a block of coal for a few minutes.

Here's to dental health in 2014! (:

xo | cmd