If you love to drink coffee, tea, wine, or cola, you may have noticed that there’s a negative to these tasty drinks–they can stain your teeth.

Even though these stains are medically harmless, many people find them unattractive. Choosing between your morning coffee and non-yellow teeth sounds like a huge bummer but don’t worry, it’s not necessary.

All you need to do is employ some simple tricks and you can enjoy your favorite foods and beverages while keeping your pearly whites pearly and white!

Beverages and Foods that Can Cause Tooth Staining

A good rule of thumb is that if a food stains your hands or t-shirt, there’s a good chance it will do the same to your teeth. Some common foods that cause staining are:

• Tomato sauce
• Blueberries
• Beets
• Soy sauce
• Dark beverages like tea, coffee, cola, red wine, grape juice, and cranberry juice

After looking over a list of foods that yellow your teeth, it may be comforting to know that there are yummy foods out there that have the opposite effect! Check out this recent post for more information about foods that whiten teeth.

Five Methods for Cutting Down on Staining

You can still enjoy the foods and drinks you love, without resolving yourself to a life of yellow teeth. Putting these tips to use can go a long way toward reducing the staining effects.

1. Throw in Sips of Water: Each time you take a sip of wine, coffee, tea, cola, or juice, take a sip of water. This helps to rinse your teeth between sips. Plus, this can counteract the dehydrating effects of alcohol and coffee.
2. Keep Your Mouth Clean:  In addition to removing the substance that causes staining, keeping your mouth clean with twice daily brushing and daily flossing removes plaque. This substance creates a sticky surface for the stain-causing foods and drinks to grab on to. Brushing again after eating a stain-causing food is a good idea, however, you should wait 30 minutes. Since most of these foods are acidic, your mouth needs time to return to its normal PH balance. Brushing while the PH in your mouth is acidic can cause damage.
3. Use a Straw: This can prevent the stain-causing beverage from ever touching your teeth.
4. Make it to Your Dentist’s Office Twice a Year: As plaque sits on your teeth, it eventually hardens into tartar. This substance makes your teeth yellow and dull, and it can only be removed during a professional cleaning.
5. Avoid Smoking: In case you needed another reason to quit smoking, using tobacco products seriously yellows your teeth.

What If It’s Too Late?

These tips will help prevent staining, but they won’t remove tooth stains you already have. Fortunately, professional whitening treatments can! Click here to learn more about the whitening services we have available.