Despite the fact that it is recommended to drink more liquids in order to maintain good oral health, not every drink is beneficial. Some of them contain acids that ruin your teeth while others are full of sugar that may affect your overall health. That’s why you should always be careful with liquids you drink. In this article, we gathered five common drinks that spoil your teeth you should know.
1. Wine
First and foremost, you should know that wine can be extremely beneficial to your health. For example, red wine contains antioxidants that can prevent certain cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, wine can ease diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis.
However, red wine is full of tannins that can easily dye your teeth into a purple shade. Moreover, it contains acids that soften your enamel and make it more prone to discoloration. If you don’t want to perform teeth whitening too often, drink water after drinking wine or eat hard cheese after every sip.
2. Citrus juice
Natural citrus juices contain a lot of acids. As mentioned above, acids make the tooth enamel softer. Moreover, they eat away the outer layer of the enamel. As a result, your teeth become more prone to tooth decay and enamel erosion. People who are fond of acidic drinks also may suffer from teeth sensitivity.
Juices that are sold in markets often contain added sugar. In combination with acids, sugar is extremely harmful to your teeth. It increases the number of bacteria in your mouth and contributes to tooth decay. Moreover, such juices can contain preservatives and other harmful substances that can also affect your health.
3. Soda
Sweet soda is considered one of the most harmful drinks. The reality is that it also contains acids and a huge amount of sugar that really destroys your teeth. It is important to know that people who consume too much soda, have tooth decay and gum disease more often than other people.
Sugar is a perfect food for bacteria that inhabit your mouth. These bacteria eat sugar and food particles and produce acids. When these bacteria start to multiply, they increase the acidity in the mouth that results in enamel weakening. If you want to refresh yourself in hot weather, you can replace sweet soda with sparkling water without added sweeteners or cold tea.
4. Coffee
People who are fond of coffee may notice that their teeth tend to become darker. This happens because tannins in coffee can easily stick to your tooth enamel. Moreover, you should know that coffee is an acidic drink that also aggravates the tooth discoloration.
If you want to minimize teeth staining, try to drink water after coffee. You can also add some milk into your coffee. It will reduce its acidity and provide you with additional calcium that is essential to your teeth. However, it is not recommended to brush your teeth right after coffee because you can easily scratch the soften layers of tooth enamel.
5. Tea
As well as coffee, tea also contains tannins that stain the tooth enamel. Moreover, black tea with lemon can even aggravate teeth discoloration because of acids in the lemon. However, you should know that green or white tea has fewer tannins that help avoid excessive teeth staining.
If you want to minimize staining, you can brush your teeth after tea (if you didn’t add lemon into it). You can also drink water as it washes away tannins and increases the production of saliva. Moreover, herbal tea can not only help avoid teeth staining but also cope with mild inflammation and other oral issues.