Disclosure: I received sample products from Carbon Coco in exchange for this post. All opinions expressed are my own.

What if I told you that you could whiten your teeth by completely covering them in charcoal? Sounds gross, right? Well that’s exactly what I did with Carbon Coco and I was surprised by the results. Before I get into that, I wanted to give you a little background on my teeth. In 2014, my dentist told me that I had been grinding my teeth at night which caused tiny little fractures. This made my teeth SO sensitive to everything. I have to wear a mouth guard every night now to prevent more damage. One of the side effects of grinding is that it can start to yellow your teeth, but I was hesitant to use any whitening options because they were too strong for my sensitive teeth. Enter Carbon Coco.

Carbon Coco uses activated charcoal to remove toxins, stains, and plaque from your teeth through a process called adsorption, in which the charcoal binds with these particles and flushes them out. The only thing I knew about activated charcoal was that they use it in hospitals to pump people’s stomachs when they overdose so I did a little research. Carbon Coco’s charcoal is made from 100% certified organic coconut shell charcoal. What makes it “activated” is how it’s processed, with high heat making it more porous than regular charcoal. Activated charcoal has a negative electric charge so it can attract toxins and gases with a positive electric charge. Charcoal cannot be absorbed by the human body, so if you accidentally swallow some, your body will just pass it through.

Before you try just any activated charcoal on your teeth, remember that all charcoal products are not created equal. I mentioned above that my teeth are extremely sensitive so I have to be careful not to do any further damage to them. The FDA uses a scale called Relative Dentin Abrasivity (RDA) which measures abrasiveness in all FDA approved dental products. They recommend a score of 200 or below on the scale. I found it interesting that most whitening toothpastes score between 100 to 200 RDA, but Carbon Coco’s toothpaste is 60 RDA and the tooth polish is 68 RDA. This struck a chord with me as being a great whitening option for my sensitive teeth.

With all my questions answered, I was ready to try out Carbon Coco. I’m glad I read some reviews before I did because it is MESSY! They recommend you do this at night, but someone suggested to do this in the shower and boy I’m glad I took that advice. I dipped the toothbrush into the tooth polish powder, popped it in my mouth, hopped in the shower and started brushing. When I spit it out and rinsed, it was so easy to pull the shower head down and rinse the mess down the drain. Then I followed up with the activated charcoal toothpaste and finished my shower.

I wasn’t expecting too much, but to my surprise my teeth were noticeably whiter and brighter! I was thrilled with the results and will definitely use this again. I will probably treat this like a face mask or something I do to get ready for a big occasion or photo op. It added a little extra time to my routine, but not much.

Have you tried Carbon Coco? I would love to hear about your results in the comments.

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