Just like any other vulnerable essential body organ, you should keep your teeth safe. As an old saying goes: prevention is better than cure. The primary and easiest way to maintain a glittering smile is through avoiding taking food and beverages, which contain staining components.

Below are examples of the leading causes of teeth discolouration:

1. Eating Staining Foods

Any food that stains your clothes, utensil or hand will definitely leave stains on your teeth as well. Some of those foods include sticky lollies, beetroot, bright-coloured berries, soy sauce, and tomato sauce. However, dishes with creamy and light sauces might not stain your teeth.

2. Keeping Food and Beverages in Your Mouth

Holding food items and drinks before swallowing increases more contact with your teeth. Therefore, they are likely to leave stains while the acidic ones will erode the enamel. It is advisable not to keep food in your mouth longer than necessary. Also, you can prevent the contact of liquids with your front teeth by using a straw while drinking coloured beverages.

Drinking Red Wine, Coffee, and Other Staining Drinks

After drinking coffee, you should rinse your mouth with clean water. Failure to do so may result to cause the chromogens pigments found in coffee to stick on your teeth surface. With time, the teeth will start darkening.

Red wine may also leave stains on your teeth enamel. At Bright Smiles Dentistry, we recommend sipping water to reduce the sticking wine pigments.

Addition of milk to coffee and black tea helps to minimise teeth stains. In fact, milk will provide calcium for healthy teeth.

3. Smoking

While smoking is commonly associated with breathing system disorders such as lung and throat cancer, it has adverse effects on dental health as well. Smoking or chewing tobacco cause teeth stains. More ever, it may result in oral cancer and gum disease. The best way to deal with smoking is simply quitting.

4. Failure to Brush and Floss Your Teeth

A good oral hygiene aids in minimising dental plaque build-up. The plaque holds a lot of stains on the surface of your teeth if they are not removed. Our experts advise clients to use fluoride toothpaste to brush teeth twice a day. They are also encouraging flossing at least once in a day. Additionally, the consumption of a balanced diet with low sugar intake helps to maintain healthy teeth.

However, if your teeth are already stained and discoloured, you can still get your bright smile back. Visit Bright Smiles Dentistry on the Sunshine Coast for a professional Tooth Whitening service.