Acne and Toothpaste?
In the quest for clear skin, people are willing to try some pretty strange things. Sometimes these unorthodox treatments even work. One of the more unusual acne treatments out there is using toothpaste as a spot treatment. Can smearing toothpaste on your zits actually help? Yes, but there are definitely better alternatives.
The pasty white varieties of toothpaste are the ones most likely to show some actually results on your skin. These are composed primarily of calcium carbonate and floride salts, which can facilitate the drying out of the applied area, and presumably reduce inflammation. Many brands of toothpaste also contain baking soda, which can clean out your pores and eliminate bacteria quite effectively. Keep in mind that almost anything which dries out the skin can temporarily aid with the appearance of acne. However, getting control of your skin requires more than just drying out trouble areas, which can lead to new acne blemishes in the future - and other spot treatments such as benzoyl peroxide and tea tree oil are typically much more effective at actually killing P. acnes bacteria.
If you’re really looking for an alternate acne spot treatment, toothpaste may work, but I would recommend skipping the toothpaste and just buying some baking soda instead. A pure baking soda paste will most likely work better, and does not contain all the unnecessary ingredients found in different brands of toothpaste.
