Effectiveness and abrasiveness of activated charcoal as a whitening agent: A systematic review of in vitro studies

Abstract

Introduction: Tooth whitening is currently one of the most requested treatments to change the color of teeth. There are different types of whitening in the dental office and at home. There are also many whitening agents on the market. Nowadays, the public has shown great interest in a new natural compound: activated charcoal. It has an abrasive effect and it is included in toothpastes to whiten teeth quickly and easily.

Objectives: The main objective of the systematic review is to perform a qualitative synthesis of the available literature on the use of activated charcoal-based toothpaste for tooth whitening.

Material and methods: An electronic search was carried out in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. The search included the terms (charcoal-based OR activated charcoal OR charcoal OR soot) AND (toothpaste OR dentifrices OR bleaching OR oral hygiene OR enamel OR teeth). Inclusion criteria were articles that were published in English, that included activated charcoal toothpastes, that assessed the efficacy of activated charcoal bleaching and/or the safety of using activated charcoal toothpastes, that were conducted on humans or extracted teeth regardless of their origin and the year of publication.

Results: Out of 208 articles, 11 met the inclusion criteria, the Risk of Bias of the selected studies was determined as medium-high. Regarding the whitening effect, there is a variety of results depending on the study: in some there are no significant differences between the proposed treatments and in others activated charcoal is not the most whitening agent. Regarding the abrasive effect, most studies agree that activated charcoal toothpaste has a higher abrasive potential.

Conclusion: Toothpastes based on activated charcoal possess a lower whitening effect than other alternatives and can be considered as less safe due to its high abrasive potential.

Keywords: Abrasion; Activated charcoal; Tooth whitening; Toothpaste.