Drinks which can Stain your Teeth

Everyone desires for sparkling and dazzling teeth for perfect smile. However, sipping on few drinks can ruin  your pearly whites. Some drinks can give unsighty stains on teeth by becoming embedded in the natural  irregularities, cracks and ridges of the teeth and some other drinks are acidic solutions (low pH) which can dissolve enamel, making tooth more susceptible to discoloration.

List of drinks bad for your teeth :

1. Dark Drinks

Basically, if the drink is dark in color, frequent exposure can darken your tooth enamel with time.Dark drinks are most likely to stain or discolor teeth. Now, how would you know which drink will stain my teeth, so remember this simple thing “If food leaves a stain on a white T-shirt or anything white it will also stain your teeth.”

– Black Coffee or Tea

Taninins found in tea, coffee and other beverages cause brown stains. The darker the coffee, the more it stains the teeth.

-Red Wine

Red wine can cause tooth staining. In addition, the alcohol content  is very acidic and wears away tooth enamel and can lead to tooth sensitivity.

– Cola Drinks

Dark-colored colas not only stain teeth, but also erode tooth enamel and cause tooth decay and tooth sensitivity.

-Hot chocolate

2  Acidic drinks like  soda or carbonated drinks, grapefruit juice, tomato juice, lemonade, orange or apple juice

Acidic foods break down the enamel on your teeth that makes them more porous and more prone to absorb stains from the food and drinks you consume.

Drinks vary in their resistance to the
buffering effect of saliva. Studies show that fruit juices are the most resistant to saliva’s buffering effect, followed by, in
order: fruit-based carbonated drinks and flavoured mineral waters, non-fruit-based carbonated drinks, sparkling mineral waters.

So, more resistant  a  drink to buffering action of saliva, more it would have deleterious effect on dental health.

3. Excessesive sugary drinks

Sugars contained in drinks also turn to acid eventually by the action of bacteria, causing tooth erosion or cavities. Sugar+Acidic drink- maximum potential to harm teeth

– Sports drink

Sports drinks are the most appropriate hydration fluid during strenuous activity. They contain no stimulants like caffeine as in energy drinks, only carbohydrate and salts to replace those lost in sweat.

High sugar content and the high acidity of many sports drinks which can be much lower than the critical pH of 5.5, can eat away at tooth enamel and can contain very unhealthy amounts of calories.

– Energy drinks

Energy drinks are advertised as drinks that instantly gear up your energy levels. Basically these drinks are highly caffeinated drinks with sugar which may deminerlise tooth surface and stain them too.

4. Fruit juice

We often chose Fruit juices  as an alternative to sugary sodas, but actually these juices have significant amount of Sucrose  “Arch criminal   sugar”. Other then sugar, citric acids in fruit juice can lead to tooth decay.

5. Pigmented Drinks

– Cranberry Juice

Cranberry juice, grape juice and other dark-colored fruit juices are very
good at staining teeth because  contain pigments–and lots of them–that can yellow teeth.

–  Soy Sauce

Soy sauce is a condiment made from a fermented paste of boiled soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds.
Soy  sauce sticks to teeth, and the
deep-colored pigment can cause
very bad stains.

– Balsamic Vinegar

Balsamic vinegar is made from grapes and generally consumed
in the Mediterranean region. Balsamic vinegar is deeply pigmented causing teeth discoloration.

– Tomato Sauce

Lycopene is the pigment principally responsible for the characteristic deep-red color of ripe tomato fruits and tomato products. But the tomato sauce is highly acidic and it attaches to the teeth and causes unsightly stains.

– Blueberries

Even if the deep berry blue color
can cause deep staining.

How to avoid side effects of drink

• Casein is a milk protein which can inhibit staining of teeth. Therefore, addition of milk to tea or coffee significantly reduces the tea’s  or coffee’s ability to stain teeth.

• Always drink water or chew sugarless gum after having your dose of caffeine or any drink which is supposed to affect you teeth adversely

• Whenever you want to sip colored beverages, use straw in order to minimize the staining effect of beverages.

• So avoid acidic foods which are rich in colour. These tends to be rich in tannin

• Donot  jump too quickly into brushing right after drinking coffee or wine, acidic drink. Wait at least one hour to neutralize the acid.

• Visit your dentist for a teeth cleaning twice a year, whether you drink teeth-staining drinks or not.

• If you must drink juice, you can lower the sugar by cutting it with water. Alternatively, you can look for low sugar juice options as well.

• Don’t hold the drink in your mouth before swallowing.

• Rinse your mouth with water immediately after drinking liquids. Water helps both to neutralize the acid and to increase the production of saliva.