Why does coffee stain teeth?

Your teeth may look smooth, but on a close examination the enamel is made up of long crystal rods, that have small pits and grooves between them. If your teeth have been traumatized, chipped, worn or you are grinding your teeth, more cracks and chips develop. Stains from food, beverage such as coffee or red wine or smoking, can get trapped into the enamel imperfections. Plaque on the teeth, can also retain the stains on top of the enamel. The long term effect, of the accumulation of fine stained particles leads to yellowing of the teeth and the creation of thin dark lines.

How to avoid a “Coffee Smile”?

• It is unthinkable to give up coffee, tea, or other tooth-staining beverages, but it is the best way to prevent the staining. Since the depth of tooth staining is linked to the amount of time the coffee particles spend on our teeth, reducing frequency of the coffee intake or having it go down fast, can dramatically reduce the amount of coffee staining. While, sipping slowly on a cup of coffee over a few hours, will cause a fast and profound staining.
• Another way to reduce the staining is to have a good oral hygiene, decreasing the available plaque and calculus for the stains to deposit themselves in. Keeping your teeth clean with professional scaling and cleaning and daily brushing and flossing, prevents the build up of stained plaque on the teeth.
• Drink staining drinks through a straw, it may not work for hot coffee and look strange with red wine. But when one has ice coffee or a soft drink it can be the way to go, to prevent tooth staining.
• It may take away some of the pleasure away, but cleaning your teeth after drinking coffee or other staining drinks, will remove the stains before they manage to penetrate deeper.
• Don’t smoke.

If after you have taken these steps the pearly whites are not as bright as they used to be then you may need to consider tooth whitening. There are 3 different ways to whiten your teeth:

• Home whitening kits for professional Tooth Whitening : We offer a specially designed tray system that is custom made for your mouth. It keeps the whitening gel close to the right areas of the teeth to ensure the best result with the minimum amount of sensitivity. You get to choose how white the teeth will be an the real advantage of our system is the ability to re-whiten the teeth in the future if the effect wears off over time.
• Whitening toothpaste or mouth rinse: There are many products available on the market for tooth whitening, some use hard abrasives to “scrape off” the stained enamel and some contain low concentrations of peroxide. These solutions are mildly effective for short periods of time, since the depleted enamel layer will give way to the yellow dentin, that will show through over time, making the tooth look yellow.
• In Office professional Tooth Whitening : This treatment gives the fastest results, after one to two appointments the teeth will be brighter in the comfort of our practice without an effort. We use a special system that has very little sensitivity to create a beautiful smile in a safe and predictable way, while you watch a video or listen to music.

It is important to remember thаt teeth which are covered with crowns or fillings dо nоt rеѕроnd tо tooth whitening. If you have crowns or large fillings, once you are happy with the color of your teeth achieved with tooth whitening, for a great result we can replace the discolored crowns or fillings to match. If you would like to know more about tooth whitening, please call Tooronga Family Dentistry, Phone number 98227006.