One of the weirdest revelations of today: Not using a brush can help you get whiter teeth

When they first meet you, people notice your smile. When flashing wide-mouthed, eye-crinkling smiles, people want their teeth to be strong, white, and healthy. However, if your teeth aren’t white, they can be with teeth whitening. Though it can harm enamel, leading to cavities and discoloration, toothpaste only gets rid of surface stains. But don’t worry. An innovative hydrogel therapy that disintegrates biofilms that cause cavities and whitens teeth without hurting them has been found by researchers. The research findings were published in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, as reported by ANI.

Using a toothbrush and flossing every day can help you prevent cavities from developing. However, these techniques don’t work very well, though, to whiten teeth.

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Customers frequently use over-the-counter or professional whitening procedures that include blue light and gels containing hydrogen peroxide for improved whitening. This combination causes a chemical reaction that removes stains. The majority of the discolouration is removed by this combination. However, reactive oxygen species are produced which can damage enamel.

Xiaolei Wang and Lan Liao, along with other colleagues, modified titanium oxide nanoparticles for a less harmful tooth whitening procedure. But it still requires high-intensity blue light, which can harm your eyes and skin. In order to develop a safer alternative option that would whiten teeth and also prevent cavities, the team wanted to sort a material activated by the green light.

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The researchers mixed copper oxide, nanoparticles, sodium alginate, and bismuth oxychloride nanoparticles into the thick solution. The researchers applied the mixture to the surface of the samples' teeth and sprayed the mix with calcium chloride to create a strong solution, and then a strong hydrogel was created. This was then tested on teeth in a lab that was stained with soy sauce, coffee, tea, blueberry juice, and other substances.

The teeth gradually became whiter after the treatment and green light, and the enamel was unharmed. In the test, 94 per cent of the bacteria in biofilms were killed. This was then tested on rats as well and showed a positive response in preventing cavities.

Hence, as per the researchers, their risk-free, brush-free method safely whitens the teeth and also prevents cavities.

(With inputs from agencies)

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