Healthful & frugal ways to whiten teeth?

[TopHatFox]

Apparently it's important for finance career stuff to have perfectly white teeth. Woo.

So, naturally, I'm thinking of home methods to remove coffee/tea and other stains. Some basic ideas to start:

1. Brush teeth twice daily, floss once daily
2. Brush tongue, roof of mouth, and below tongue
3. Use electric toothbrush (gets more bacteria out faster)
4. Use toothpaste w/ fluoride (caved into dentist)
5. Get a dental cleaning/check-up every 6 months
6. Rinse w/ water after eating acidic foods

Some ideas I'm mulling over:

1. Rinse mouth with hydrogen peroxide + water
2. Rinse mouth with baking soda + water

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How do you keep your teeth white, if you care about such a thing? What's worked and what hasn't?

[Solvent]

NSFW: look here.

This has to be a specifically North American thing, I think. Pure shiny white is not a natural colour for teeth to be.

[Miss Lonelyhearts]

I typed this post then deleted it, then saw your other thread about how to look healthy/alert when you're not. I think there is a larger tension here than understanding the ins and outs of high finance mores.

I admire your gumption in trying to apply to ERE principles to a career in finance. But I would suggest that the two are nearly if not entirely incommensurable. Teeth whitening is neither healthy nor frugal; it's cosmetic, and it appeals to financiers because superficial glamour offers an apparent justification for long hours and stress, and it clearly differentiates them from poor people. Similarly, appearing exhausted when you are exhausted is bad because it suggests either a. you can't "handle" the workload (although secretly no one can) or b. the firm's expectations are unrealistic. Since b. is unthinkable, a. must be the case, ergo deviation from mandated alert enthusiastic smiling demeanor is grounds for dismissal on account of "bad fit/couldn't hack it." ERE (the health-oriented, permaculture inflected part) is a fairly radical departure from mainstream thinking and will be very difficult to incorporate culturally into Accenture/Deloitte/McKinsey etc etc. If you succeed I will be interested in hearing about it though.

Actual answers to your questions-- 1. quick googling reveals H202 makes your teeth sensitive, so I'd be inclined to avoid. 2. easiest way to appear neat and presentable is probably to keep your hair short enough that it doesn't need to be combed, or can be "reset" by wetting and being allowed to air dry. For males, hard to avoid shaving every day. (Women still have it worse thanks to the make up routine.) A wardrobe of freshly starched shirts, clean pants, and matching belts and oxfords will make you basically "put together" (on campus--substitute corporate dress code as needed). N.b.: I'm not saying this is cheap, sustainable, or fun. To appear alert after sleep deprivation, my own go to is to literally slap myself in the face. I'm not recommending this for anyone else though.

[TopHatFox]

ERE (the health-oriented, permaculture inflected part) is a fairly radical departure from mainstream thinking and will be very difficult to incorporate culturally into Accenture/Deloitte/McKinsey etc etc. If you succeed I will be interested in hearing about it though

Yeah, I'm interested to see how they mesh, too. To be fair though, I am not interested in the worst offenders: investment banking or consulting (100 hour weeks). I like buy side better, particularly 1. financial planning (the non "desk and a phone" route) or 2. asset management. These two are more like 40-60 hour weeks. The key is actually getting one of these positions after college. Hence my recent work-related posts. (:

[JamesR]

I went to two different dentists to consult about getting some orthodontic work done. I went two years apart. They took x-rays and pictures of the teeth and gave me a copy each time.

I compared the photographs and my teeth are several shades whiter the second time. I had been actively doing a low-carb/ketogenic diet for 8+ months prior to that. I really only drank tea, rarely coffee.

[Gilberto de Piento]

If you must whiten, try generic brand whitestrips from the grocery store. The basic level ones work well.

[jacob]

Apparently it's important for finance career stuff to have perfectly white teeth. Woo.

No more than it's important to be tall(*) for finance career stuff ... that is to say in certain vocations such as investment banking, consulting, and prostitution, first impressions do matter! But what ultimately matters almost exclusively is the bottom line, not how bleached your teeth are.

(*) And just to pre-empt your next question, here you go

Healthy teeth are naturally yellowish(**) because the enamel starts getting transparent with use and the underlying dentin is yellow. Only babies and middle schoolers have white teeth.

(**) However, if the teeth are stained (coffee, tea, tobacco) or plaquish they will be more yellow --- and that's the look people are trying to avoid.

[stayhigh]

1. Brush your teeth using baking soda twice a week, no more! Stop when you notice results, as it works a bit like sandpaper.
2. Twice a day, after regular brushing take banana skin and rub it against your teeth for 2-3 minutes. Expect first results after two weeks or more.

You can also combine both methods, but remember to not using baking soda for too long!

[enigmaT120]

NSFW: look here.

This has to be a specifically North American thing, I think. Pure shiny white is not a natural colour for teeth to be.

If I think about it I get a little creeped out by the shiny white teeth on TV people, in ads and stuff, and in magazines.

I second the baking soda suggestion and the warnings. It can be hard on your gums, which are the main reason you brush anyway. I drink rather strong black tea so my teeth do stain.

[7Wannabe5]

Miss Lonelyhearts wrote: ERE (the health-oriented, permaculture inflected part) is a fairly radical departure from mainstream thinking and will be very difficult to incorporate culturally into Accenture/Deloitte/McKinsey etc etc.

True and not true. My polyamour who is an avid permaculturist makes his primary living in the field of finance. Both interests can be more about enjoying complex thinking or the concept of setting up sustainable or efficient systems, rather than simple-green-health-culture vs. status-flash-wealth-culture. Another example would be that ,IMO, if you inserted Paul Wheaton and Nassim Taleb in a Degrees and Shades of Dominance Grid, they wouldn't be too far apart.

OTOH, with the caveat that people are often not like their writing voices, I would agree that Zalo does not seem like this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW0RgtRLd1k