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Bright Smiles: How To Prevent Coffee And Tea Stains On Your Teeth

17 January 2018

Diane Mason

While coffee and tea have some very good health benefits for your body, they can do a number on the shade of your teeth. While you may be healthy on the inside, stained teeth can make you look unhealthy on the outside. Fortunately, you can still enjoy your coffee and tea and still have bright, white teeth. Here is some helpful information:

How Coffee and Tea Helps Your Teeth

Although coffee and tea can stain your teeth, there are still some benefits to drinking either beverage on a daily basis. Coffee can help deplete some of the bacteria that can grow in the mouth that causes plaque and cavities.

Tea is helpful as it contains polyphenols that help prevent gum disease. Polyphenols are an anti-inflammatory that can help keep gingivitis at bay.

Preventing Teeth Stains

No matter how well you care for your teeth, you can still suffer from stains when you consume a lot of tea and coffee on a regular basis. There are some different steps that you can take that will help decrease these stains or prevent them altogether.

Adding milk to coffee or tea can be quite helpful. It will lighten the color of the beverage, thus decreasing the stainability. Milk also has beneficial polyphenols that stick to the stains and will help prevent them from adhering to your teeth, sending them through your digestive system.

Drinking a caffeine free tea and coffee is also helpful for stain prevention as they also contain polyphenols. Enjoying your beverage through a straw can also help because the liquid is not touching the surface of your teeth.

The absolute best thing you can do is brush your teeth shortly after drinking your coffee or tea. Brushing removes the residue that is left on the teeth immediately rather than leaving it to set in over the day. Wait about half an hour to brush so that your saliva can help neutralize the acid that is present, preventing any damage to your teeth.

Professional Teeth Whitening

Taking steps on your own to keep your teeth white is ideal, but you may want to consider professional teeth whitening with a cosmetic dentist for a really bright smile. Over the years, those stains can seriously decrease the brightness of your smile. Once they are set in, they can be difficult to remove. Your cosmetic dentist will use professional bleaching agent in the office to help lift those stains after years of drinking tea and coffee.

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