Review of Carbon Coco Activated Charcoal Tooth Whitening Kit. You may have seen the videos of bloggers using Activated Charcoal to clean their teeth. It makes your mouth totally black, like a crazy witch, but you rinse out and your teeth are blinding white.

As a human being, I want whiter teeth but I can’t quite be bothered to get the whitening done. And as a dentist I have all sorts of queries about how Activated Charcoal works and it’s safety. So I’m going to look at the product from both points of view to give you a balanced review.

I was sent Carbon Coco’s Ultimate Carbon Kit to review. Here is what the product has to offer-

• 1 tub of Original Carbon Coco medical grade Activated Charcoal Tooth Polish. It contains 100% Organic Coconut Shell Activated Charcoal with a hint of bentonite powder and lemon myrtle.
• 1 tube of Activated Charcoal Toothpaste. I couldn’t find the ingredients list, but it doesn’t contain Fluoride.
• 1 Toothbrush with Bamboo Bristles

Available from CarbonCoco.com (You can get 15% discount with code NIA15)

What Activated Charcoal Can Do For Your Teeth?

Activated Charcoal is charcoal that has been heat treated to make the particles more porous, thereby increasing its adsorbability. It can be used to adsorb toxins into it’s surface. If you have eaten something poisonous you will be given Activated Charcoal to eat to suck the poison out of your stomach. The theory is that the mega adsorbent Charcoal will suck all the bacteria and stains off the teeth and gums.

When used as a dental product it could give whiter teeth, remove stains, strengthen teeth and work as a naturally antibacterial to remove bacteria from  your mouth and freshen breath.

From a dentist’s perspective, it seems that the jury is out on the safety and effectiveness of Activated Charcoal for teeth. I found a review study that just stated “more studies needed”. As far as I can gather, Activated Charcoal is about half as abrasive as most whitening toothpastes. It measures 70 RDA (Relative Dentine Abrasiveness), this falls below the ADA recommendation of 250 RDA for toothpastes.

There is no evidence for the claims that it kills bacteria and strengthens teeth. For these effects you can rely on the Fluoride in your toothpaste. I would always recommend a Fluoride toothpaste and Carbon Coco doesn’t contain toothpaste. The other issue is that the very fine charcoal powder can collect in the margins of fillings.

While it makes sense that the charcoal particles can remove stains gently, I would only recommend it as an occasional tooth brightener as opposed to a replacement for Fluoride toothpaste.

Carbon Coco Activated Charcoal Review

With all that sensible stuff out of the way, does it actually whiten the teeth? I professionally whitened  my teeth once, years ago and it worked really well. I could do with bleaching them again, but it’s a bit of a faff and it makes them really sensitive. I’m hoping that the charcoal polish will be effective enough to just lift them by a shade.

The presentation of the product is really nice. It has black and mint green packaging and comes in a satin bag.

The Activated Charcoal Polish is the part of the kit I was most excited about. You dip your wet toothbrush into the light, fine powder and lightly brush. The first thing that springs to mind is “black!” The powder makes your mouth so so black. Which I found enormously amusing.

The sink needs a bit of a clean after the Carbon Coco onslaught, it must be said. That charcoal powderfgets everywhere. It has a fine texture which doesn’t feel gritty or abrasive. It doesn’t taste bad, it doesn’t have much in the way of flavour.

I’m happy to report that Carbon Coco did remove my surface stain and left my teeth whiter. And it was a lot of fun turning my mouth black.

The toothpaste was ok, it has a strong minty flavour but doesn’t have the same wow factor stain removal wise. Because it doesn’t have Fluoride, I wasn’t happy to replace my usual toothpaste with Carbon Coco.

Here are the pictures- Before, during and after using Carbon Coco for 5 days-

I think my teeth do look brighter. But you can see where the charcoal particles get stuck under the gums. I bet if you have fillings at the front they’d be left with grey bits stuck in the edges.

Carbon Coco Activated Charcoal Tooth Polish Review

As much fun as it is, no tooth polish is going to have much effect on the actual colour of the teeth. To change the intrinsic shade you need to use a bleaching agent, see your dentist for that. As an occasional stain remover Activated Charcoal works well and isn’t too abrasive. I really enjoyed trying Carbon Coco.

Carbon Coco Activated Charcoal Tooth Polish is £21.70 from CarbonCoco.com. To get 15% discount apply code NIA15 at checkout.