What’s the best way to naturally whiten my teeth?

My first recommendation is to do oil pulling on a daily basis. This is an ancient Ayurvedic technique that not only whitens teeth, but is also said to help flush toxins from the body.

The way to do it is to place one spoonful of coconut oil in your mouth and swish it around for five minutes, then spit it out in a bin, rinse well and then brush your teeth.

But my new favourite teeth-whitening method is using an activated charcoal/clay-based toothpaste such as Earthpaste Peppermint with Charcoal (£7.49). It delivers all the benefits you would expect from a toothpaste, but without any foaming agents such as sodium lauryl sulfate, or chemicals such as titanium dioxide, which is used to make the paste bright white. Georganics Coconut Oil with Charcoal (£6.90) uses active charcoal from coconut shells and has a warm, spicy, sweet, liquorice-like aroma.

Karen Sinclair-Drake is our beauty expert. Email your fitness, health or beauty questions to topsante.talkback@kelsey.co.uk