Want a Bright, White Smile?

“A smile is the best makeup any girl can wear.” Marilyn Monroe

I agree with Marilyn. A bright, white smile is the prettiest thing you can wear. When my braces were removed, I was really happy with how straight my smile was, but was a little insecure about the coloring of my teeth. If you're insecure about your smile, which you shouldn’t be, know you’re not alone. Here are my favorite tricks to whiten your teeth and see results after only a few days:

Crest Whitening Strips

I feel like a lot of people used these for a day, didn’t see results, and gave up. Don’t worry, I'm guilty of doing the same. Until one day I asked my dentist, who has a super-duper white smile, what did he use. I was expecting him to tell me that he had used an expensive treatment that required several visits to a dental office, but he told me he used Crest Whitening Strips! What?? With renewed faith, I kept trying them and I got the pearly whites I wanted in only 2 weeks!

Below are the steps I did for maximum quality whitening:

1. Dry your teeth with a paper towel

2. Once you’ve peeled the whitening strip off the plastic, make sure you stretch the strip while applying it onto your teeth

3. Leave for 1 hour (packaging states 30 minutes, but my dentist recommended one hour) and do not talk! (But, iIf you really need to talk, I recommend the app Speak4Me) :)

4. Take off the strips and brush your teeth to get rid of the residue

5. Smile!

Crest also offers whitening strips for sensitive teeth and they also sell whitening strips that are extra strong to remove stubborn stains. I was completely fine with the cheapest strips they had, so don’t stress out in the middle of CVS or Walgreens not knowing which strips to buy. The key is to follow my steps above.

Crest Whitening Toothpaste

My favorite toothpastes are the Crest Complete Scope Toothpaste and the Crest Glamorous White Toothpaste. Another great one to whiten your teeth are any Arm and Hammer whitening toothpaste. Although it doesn’t taste as good as the Crest toothpaste, it gets your teeth shiny because the main whitening ingredient in their toothpaste is baking soda, the OG of teeth whitening!

At-Home Remedies

Baking Soda and Hydrogen Peroxide: Mix both in a bowl, dip your toothbrush in the mixture, and scrub your stains away!

Strawberry: Mix a crushed strawberry with baking soda, dip your toothbrush in the paste, and exfoliate those pearly whites!

Coconut Oil: Swish the coconut oil around your mouth for a few minutes (pretend you’re in an exotic beach somewhere!), spit it out, rinse, and smile!

I remember how great it felt to get compliments on my white smile. I hope you follow these tips and your smile brightens the world! And remember one of my favorite Chinese proverbs, “Use your smile to change the world; don’t let the world change your smile.” :)