Over the past couple years, Ive heard from multiple people that oranges are good for your teeth and Ive also heard that they are bad for your teeth. Finally I had in orange in my dorm room the other day and before giving eating, it decided to look up whether these specific fruits are either harmful or beneficial to teeth.
According to /www.joybauer.com, a website that provides information about the pro’s and con’s of different foods, oranges are good for your teeth. They claimed, “citrus fruits like oranges help keep your gums healthy by strengthening blood vessels and connective tissue, including the connective tissue that holds your teeth in your jaw.” This claim was supported by fact that oranges are loaded with Vitamin C: “Vitamin C also helps reduce inflammation, which may prevent or slow the progression of gingivitis, so make oranges, grapefruits, and other citrus regular features in your fruit bowl!” So according to their article, it’s not just the oranges that are good for your teeth but most citrus fruits as well as large doses of Vitamin C.
However, Crest 3D White‘s website posted an article discussing whether or not its good for your teeth to rub the inside of the peel of an orange on your teeth in order to whiten them. The idea behind this claim is that because citrus fruits are so high in citric acid, that rubbing them on your teeth will help eliminate the black on them. That is only that myth that is being brought up. What Crest has to say about this myth is that its not true, and that doing this only causes damage to your teeth.
Because oranges are naturally acidic, using orange peels as a natural tooth whitener can actually cause damage to the enamel of your teeth, weaken your teeth, and have lasting negative effects on your smile: “Because oranges are naturally acidic, using orange peels as a natural tooth whitener can actually cause damage to the enamel of your teeth, weaken your teeth, and have lasting negative effects on your smile.” So now one of the biggest dental care companies in the world is giving us information on how harmful this citric acid is to our teeth, but how credible are they? In the following paragraph after discussing they discourage people from whitening their teeth with oranges, they introduce their teeth whitening products and where they can be purchased as well as the safety and effectiveness of them. So maybe this myth is only being discouraged here because a company is trying to profit off their expected credibility.
So how credible are these sources? More importantly, are these oranges good or bad for our teeth? Because there are yet to be any studies published about the issue, we are forced to base our own opinions and make our on conclusions from the sources we expect to provide us with credible information.
http://www.3dwhite.com/teeth-whitening/natural-teeth-whitening/citrus-natural-tooth-whitener.aspx
http://www.joybauer.com/photo-gallery/5-fortifying-foods-for-your-teeth/oranges.aspx
Hmm this post really made me realize that not a lot of studies are published about teeth whitening, yet it is still a prominent esthetic way to improve ourselves in society. My roommate and I were just discussing the effects the white strips might have in the long run and we agreed that the outcome couldn’t be that good. If these strips instantly make your teeth whiter, what is the advantage if the whiteness doesn’t even last long? I would be interested to see if there is a reverse casualty. Will the increased use of whitening strips make it harder for the teeth to naturally whiten?
This post is super interesting! I love oranges so I am very happy to learn they are good for my teeth. Once at a friends house we were reading articles online and we came across one saying rubbing an orange peel on ur teeth will make them whiter but I never ended up trying it but it is good to know the facts about it!!