Jump Start Aug: Holiday Prep Week: Day 2

Today’s simple activity is to get your smile all shiny and extra-sparkly for the summer. This obviously can’t take the place of going to see the dentist, but it can get your teeth feeling extra clean, and it should also remove surface staining if you have any.

The trick is not to scrub really hard or generally overdo it, as you don’t want to hurt your gums or scratch the enamel on your teeth. Just use the right products and be gentle and persistent, and you’ll still see good results.

If you have an electric toothbrush, great. If not, spend a couple of minutes extra brushing your teeth with a manual toothbrush.

There are lots of expensive ‘whitening’ toothpastes available in beauty stores and high street chemists, but they’re mainly very overpriced and most of the cheaper ones will do the trick too.

Try a pound shop for any of the following:

• Smoker’s toothpaste (various brands)
• Pearl Drops whitening polish
• Theramed Pro Electric whitening

There are plenty of these in stock around the UK at the moment, so it’s easy enough to get hold of them. They’re perfectly good, and remember, the more expensive whitening brands work in just the same way – none of them have a bleaching effect.

If you’re really, really stuck you could use a tiny bit of bicarbonate of soda on a dampened toothbrush for a minute or so to remove surface stains on teeth, but only do this if the grains are very fine and it’s a one-off thing. You can do some serious damage otherwise, and it’s not a good idea at all to do anything like this even semi-regularly.

Ideally, use a stain-removing toothpaste, and remember to floss as well. Get started today, and you’ll see results nice and quickly.