Strawberries can't whiten teeth

According to University of Iowa researcher, So Ran Kwon, who compared a homemade strawberry-baking soda recipe with other remedies, such as over-the-counter products, professional whitening, and prescribed whitening products, found that brushing the teeth with fruit and baking soda does not whiten them.

Kwon, who's the sole author for the study said that the only benefit of the do-it-yourself methods was that they made the teeth look whiter by just removing accumulated plaque.

In her experiments, Kwon rubbed a mixture of California-grown, organic strawberries and baking soda on 20 recently extracted teeth for five minutes, followed by a gentle brushing. She repeated the routine three times over 10 days-much like the recommendations espoused by the pro-all-natural teeth-whitening experts.

The result: The teeth brushed with the strawberry-baking soda mixture showed no real whitening, based on two well-known color-measurement tests and evaluations with a spectrophotometer, Kwon reported.

Three other groups of 20 extracted teeth were subjected to other teeth-whitening procedures-mimicking teeth whitening at a dentist, a prescribed tooth-whitening regimen and whitening strips bought over the counter. All produced discernible whitening in the observational and instrumental tests, the study found.

The main reason why strawberries don't work as teeth whiteners is their chemistry, as they utterly lack in hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide, which are key ingredients in tooth-whitening products, according to the American Dental Association.

The study is published in the journal Operative Dentistry.