does fluoride whiten teeth

does fluoride whiten teeth

toothpaste and orange juice don’t mix. what is it about toothpaste that transforms the sweet flavor of orange juice into something so atro... Januari 18, 2017

toothpaste and orange juice don’t mix. what is it about toothpaste that transforms the sweet flavor of orange juice into something so atrociously bitter? to get to the bottom of this phenomenon, we’re going to have to cover a couple of bases here, folks, and the first one is the sense of taste. your mouth is a powerful chemical sensor equipped with around 10,000 individual

taste buds, with up to 100 individual taste receptor cells each. these taste buds are specifically programmed to detect five different types of tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami. taste is a chemical matching game of sorts. when you eat a piece of food, it distributes molecules and ions with specific shapes throughout your mouth.

each taste receptor cell is designed to match up with a specific molecule and ignore all others. although this matching game is pretty accurate, there are other factors that can affect the way your mouth interacts with taste molecules. ok. so that’s enough for taste now. let’s talk about toothpaste. now you see, in the average tube of toothpaste, you’re going to find four primary ingredients:

water, which adds body to the paste; abrasives, which help remove plaque from teeth; fluoride, which helps prevent cavities; and detergents, the components that foam up when brushing. the most commonly used detergent in toothpaste is a compound called sodium lauryl sulfate or sls for short. sls is used in tons of different household products and although sls works wonders in producing suds, it

has been noted for its strange effects on our mouth’s ability to taste. as it turns out, sls suppresses our sweet receptors and destroys a compound in our mouths called phospholipids, which inhibit our bitterness receptors. this opens up a clearer pathway for bitter molecules to reach your receptors. this is the most widely accepted explanation for why orange juice turns from this

(image of person smiling with orange juice) to this (image of same person making the “bitter” face) after you brush your teeth. like what you see here? you should probably click that subscribe button. go ahead, you know you want to. also while you are here, check out why beer gets skunked or why bacon smell so good.

and while you’re at it, come back next for more chemistry goodness.