Efficacy of natural teeth whitening remedies: Pineapple and banana

To determine how effective plant-based natural teeth whiteners are in comparison to the gold standard of at-home teeth whiteners.

Human molars (N= 64) were embedded and placed in artificial saliva. Experimental groups consisted of NC: Negative control consisting of immersion in water for 5 minutes; PA: Rubbing teeth with pineapple core for 5 minutes; BA: Rubbing teeth with a banana peel for 5 minutes; HW: 10% carbamide peroxide in custom-fitted tray for 8 hours. All groups were treated for 10 days and consisted of 16 specimens each. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to assess the difference in overall color change among groups at alpha= 0.05.

Lightness and chroma measured at 1 day and 1 week post whitening showed a statistically significant difference among the groups (P< 0.001). Only HW and PA showed an increase in lightness and a decrease in chroma. Overall color change was highest for HW followed by PA, BA, and NC.

The use of at-home whitening with 10% carbamide peroxide showed greater efficacy compared to natural whitening options. Yet, the utilization of pineapple as a potential whitening remedy demonstrated encouraging prospects, warranting further exploration.