Oral Health

Whitening toothpaste lifts surface stains — but not all of them do it safely. Here's how whitening really works, whether it wears down enamel, and how to choose an enamel-safe, remineralising formula in Australia.

Whitening toothpaste works on one thing only: extrinsic stain sitting on the surface of your enamel. It does NOT bleach your teeth or change their intrinsic colour - and the three mechanisms it uses (abrasion, chemical stain dissolution and blue covarine optics) are not equally safe.

Peroxide bleaching does not dissolve, strip or thin enamel - the fear is largely misplaced. What actually destroys enamel is abrasion (charcoal and high-RDA scrub pastes) and acid, and that damage is permanent.

Teeth are not naturally white. Enamel is semi-translucent and the dentine beneath it is naturally yellow, so the colour you see is dentine showing through enamel — which means a lot of “yellowing” is not surface stain at all, and scrubbing harder only makes it worse. Here is every cause of yellow teeth, extrinsic and intrinsic, and what actually works for each one.