By Vesi Maslenishka
I get a little bit obsessed when it comes to my teeth. I like to look after them especially after years of braces as a teenager to get them perfectly straight. That’s not to say I have the whitest teeth, in fact most of them have fillings and that’s not because of my diet. My sister and I grew up on the exact same diet, I was just the unfortunate one who ended up paying more visits to the dentist. In fact, Dr. Jerome and Dr. Thomaz from the Joshi Clinic say this is perfectly common.
We recently had a session with them at the clinic and I was all ears because some of their patients are Cate Blanchett, Gwyneth Paltrow and Liv Tyler, and who wouldn’t want a smile like theirs, right? They advised that most of us find that the pH in our moth can be quite acidic. This is because we have acid saliva after eating food which for some can take hours to neautralise. It’s not just our diets that contribute to this, it’s other factors like stress and worry which can cause a pH imbalance in our bodies. Though it can be quite hard to just stop worrying, Dr. Jerome and Dr. Thomaz gave us one simple solution that can help in balancing the pH in our mouth by using Alkaline toothpaste such as Arm & Hammer.
So what does this mean? Well, this is where it all gets quite sciency but they managed to explain this so well. The doctors told us that the baking soda, a key ingredient used in Arm & Hammer toothpaste, has many benefits. First of all for anyone who is like me and brushes their teeth quite aggressively; a baking soda toothpaste is actually quite gentle on teeth because it dissolves in saliva during brushing, meaning that it can reach under the gum line so you don’t have to brush as much. The toothpaste does all off the work. It’s also Alkaline which helps neautralise the pH in your mouth to prevent erosion while providing gentle whitening, unlike some other toothpastes which use whitening agents such as peroxide to bleach your teeth. This can actually do more harm than good because it can make your teeth very sensitive.
Apart from baking soda as a main ingredient, Arm & Hammer toothpaste contains liquid calcium: a combination of calcium and phosphate salts that deposit an enamel like mineral on the tooth surface, filling in any cracks and cavices to help repair enamel on the surface by making it stronger. If you have super sensitive teeth like me (probably from using toothpastes with peroxide and brushing out of control), it also helps relieve it by blocking any pathways to the tooth’s nerves. I’m told that it takes a bit of time to notice the effects of the toothpaste but I started using it last week so I’m hoping I’ll notice a difference very soon.