No matter how hard you try, without professional treatment, you can’t seem to keep your teeth looking white. This could be because the food and beverages you consume on a daily basis are staining your teeth.
Below are the top 13 items that stain our teeth. Avoiding or cutting back on these items can help keep your teeth looking whiter and brighter for longer.
Top Teeth Staining Food and Beverages
1. Coffee
Your teeth are porous, and naturally absorb liquid, therefore, dark liquids, such as coffee can easily stain your teeth, even if you only have one or two cups a day. Adding milk to your coffee can prevent some of the staining power, as it lightens the color of the liquid.
2. Tea
Tea is full of tannins, and depending on the darkness of the tea, will stain your teeth. Green or white teas are less likely to stain your teeth than black teas.
3. Soda
Dark colored sodas will eventually stain your teeth if you drink them everyday. Soda is also bad for you as it coats your teeth in artificial sugar and acid, which can erode tooth enamel.
4. Dark juices
Fruit juices, such as grape and cranberry juice are concentrated sources of dark pigments, and they contain acid, which is notorious for staining teeth.
5. Red Wine
The same teeth staining tannins in tea and coffee are also found in red wine. Wine can be responsible for giving teeth a grey stain, which is more difficult to remove than yellow stains.
6. White Wine
In case you thought you could get away with drinking a lighter wine, one study suggests that the acids in a lighter type of wine creates pockets in tooth enamel that allows darker liquids to seep deeper into the tooth; essentially your white wine increases the darkness of stains.
7. Popsicles
As a general rule, if something stains your lips and tongue, it is most likely going to stain your teeth. Darker coloured popsicles are more likely to leave a stain, but most popsicles have both sugar and acids that wear away at teeth.
8. Soy sauce
Any dark liquid has the potential to stain your teeth, but soy sauce will most definitely leave a stain because it is so concentrated.
9. Balsamic vinegar
As vinegar is acidic, it will naturally stick to your teeth, and its dark color makes it a likely culprit for leaving stains.
10. Tomato sauce
Anything that is tomato-based can stain your teeth. Instead of avoiding tomato sauce, which can be rather difficult, eat a salad beforehand. Vegetable greens like lettuce and broccoli create a film on your teeth that prevent staining.
11. Blueberries, Blackberries, and Pomegranates
The above fruit have rich pigments that tend to leave stains. However, swishing water around your mouth after eating these fruit can remove the liquid from your teeth and prevent staining.
12. Beets
If you have used beets in your cooking, then you know they stain everything they touch, including your teeth. It is recommended you brush your teeth within an hour of eating a beet to prevent stains.
13. Sweets
Cookies, hard candy and chips have sugars in them that latch onto your teeth and become food for the bacteria in your mouth. When the bacteria feed off these sugars, they release acids that lead to tooth decay, which may darken our teeth, and lead to other more serious dental issues.
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