Smoking aside from running rampant with your health also stains
everything. Nicotine itself is an oily liquid that seeps into our skin
in its purest form. When it is released in cigarette smoke, nicotine is
released with tar from the tobacco. The tar combined with the nicotine
in cigarette smoke will stain finger, teeth, walls, and any other porous
surface. These stains are not noticed immediately, but one day every
smoker wakes up and notices their index and middle finger of their
smoking hand have yellowed at the tip.
Other than the obvious way to prevent these stains, which is to stop
smoking, smokers can help prevent them by washing their hands as much as
possible. however, once the stains set in they only get harder to get
rid of.
Treating Nicotine Stains on Fingers
There are a lot of different products that boast the ability to remove
stains from skin. They use harsh chemicals that dry your skin and crack
your nails don't always leave you with the desired stain-free amount of
skin.
Potato
As weird as it may seem, cut a potato in half and rub it on the stained
areas of your skin. Potatoes are a strange little vegetable. Since they
contain large amounts of water, they can soak up many. They can get
excess salt out of food and rubbing the juice on your skin and letting
it set for 30 minutes can draw out stains. As the potato juice
evaporates, it brings the nicotine stain out with it.
Lemon
Similar to a potato, lemon juice can also be used to remove stains
naturally. Rub the lemon on the stains and let sit for about 10 minutes.
The lemon juice penetrates deeply and draws out the tar stains, however
like many chemical produces it does not over dry the skin.
Aspirin
Dissolve a caplet of aspirin into a cup of hot water and soak your
fingers in for about 15 minutes and it should help to lift the stain.
one of aspirin's main ingredients, salicylic acid, helps lift the stain
from your skin naturally. This method can also be done by creating a
paste from aspirin and water for tougher stains. Aspirin solution will
also help remove tobacco stains from clothing and walls.
Pumice Stone
For the tougher stains from years and years of smoking and ignoring the
tar stains, you can gently massage the affected areas before and are
with a pumice stone to scrub the stains from the skin. If you have to
use the pumice stone after, I recommend repeating whichever treatment
you were using for better results. Some have tried to remove stains by
just scrubbing them off with a pumice stone, however this will leave
your skin sore if done too vigorously and can result in calluses. Though
the pumice stone will be useful if you, like me, had tobacco stains in
already formed calluses.
Bleach
People treat bleach like it is sulfuric acid. If bleach accidentally
gets on your skin, it is not going to burn your to the bone straight
away. Bleach is a helpful tool in removing tobacco stains from fingers.
Undiluted pure bleach will cause chemical burns, so it is best to
liberally dilute it before soaking your fingers. Add a capful of bleach
to approximately two cups of water and let your fingers soak for five
minutes.
Be sure to wash hands thoroughly after soaking to remove any excess
bleach and bleach smell. Using bleach is one method that can dry your
hands out, so If that is something that will bother you, but sure to
apply lotion.
Treating Nicotine Stains on Teeth
Removing nicotine stains from teeth is a lot like removing any other
discolorations that life presents your teeth. The best advice to keeping
a white smile while still smoking it to smoke before brushing your
teeth and try to wait at least an hour after brushing. If you brush your
teeth daily, nicotine stains should keep themselves at bay.
Overnight products
Many heavy smokers are absolutely manic about smoking. They'll smoke
before brushing their teeth and immediately after. Doing this really
makes brushing your teeth to keep them white a moot point. To combat
this, invest in an overnight whitening product. This will help
counteract heavy smoking as you cannot smoke while you are sleeping.
Baking Soda and Peroxide
If you find yourself needing to do some spot treatment on some stains,
baking soda and peroxide is the poor man's stain remover. A lot of stain
removing products are essentially just baking soda and peroxide, so why
spend the extra money? Mix the two together to form a thick paste and
brush it on the stained areas of the teeth. You can also use this
mixture to replace your usual toothpaste. You will not get that minty
breath, but it will strongly help remove the stains on your teeth each
day and keep new ones from forming.
I do have a warning for this method though, many people's mouths are
excessively sensitive to peroxide so if the mixture burns, you will have
to try another method. Once in awhile is alright if it burns your
mouth, but daily use will be excruciating.
Oral Hygiene
Like I previously said, what it all comes down to is good oral hygiene
to treat and prevent tobacco stains on teeth. If tobacco has already
taken its toll and you want to change it, today is a good day to start.
use a whitening toothpaste daily and it will help fight stain build up.
This also encompasses yearly visits to the dentist for teeth cleaning.
If you are a smoker or have recently quit and want to get your smile
whiter, start with a solid teeth cleaning at the dentist. That should
help treat some of the deeper stains.
After the initial teeth cleaning, brush and even floss daily and use a
whitening product, be it whitening strips or the baking soda and
peroxide mixture, one a week at least. I found that after a about two
months, my nicotine stains were gone and my teeth were whiter than they
were when I was a child.