If you are like most adults, you likely need a cup of coffee to jumpstart your day. While coffee has several advantages for your general body health, like lowering the risk of stroke, cancer, and heart disease, drinking plenty of it could negatively affect your dental health and aesthetic appearance. Almost everything we consume impacts our dental health, but how does coffee compare?
Coffee is naturally acidic, which could wear down your teeth' enamel, putting you at risk of cavities. Also, coffee can discolor your teeth if it can stain your clothes. However, while coffee is not a friend to your teeth, you can mitigate its impacts and continue enjoying this drink as usual in several ways.
If you consume one or two cups of coffee daily and wonder whether coffee could affect your dental health and what you can do about this habit, this article is yours.
How Drinking Coffee Affects Your Dental Health
Although coffee is definitely not the worst beverage for your teeth, it can impact your dental health. While coffee's pH level is slightly acidic, around 5, some other more popular foods and drinks could have a more acidic pH, meaning they expose your teeth to worse acidity. Examples of these foods include fruits like oranges and lemons.
However, you do not have to fret because a dentist could recommend several remedies to reduce the impact of your daily cup of coffee on your teeth, but first, it is wise to learn how this everyday drink could affect your dental health. Discussed below are different ways coffee could affect your dental health:
It Can Discolor and Stain Your Teeth
Like wine and tea, coffee is full of tannins, which give it its dark color. Every time you drink coffee, these tannins latch onto the surface of your teeth, leading to discoloration. Unlike teeth yellowing, which is caused mainly by the wearing of the enamel, teeth discoloration is easy to fix.
If you are concerned about your teeth color, consulting a dentist would be wise. Your dentist could recommend a variety of teeth whitening options, including the following:
- Zoom Whitening
- Porcelain veneers
- Laser whitening
- Whitening toothpaste
- Tray-based whitening systems
The specific treatment your dentist will recommend will depend on the seriousness and extent of your teeth discoloration.
It Can Cause Dental Caries and Cavities
You are more likely to develop cavities on your teeth if you cannot go a day without a cup of coffee, especially if you like to drink your coffee slowly. Like most acidic drinks like tangerine juice, red wine, and lemonade, coffee can cause erosion of your teeth's enamel, making them thin and more susceptible to cavities.
You are even more likely to develop cavities on your teeth if you love your coffee sweetened. Adding sugar to your coffee gives the cavity-causing bacteria in your mouth a real feast, leading to more cavities due to the exposure of your teeth to acidic excretions released by these bacteria.
It Can Yellow Your Teeth
Similar to how acidic drinks and coffee can cause your teeth to develop cavities, this same process could also cause a noticeable yellow appearance, affecting your smile's aesthetic appearance. The more your teeth enamel wears away due to erosion due to the acidity of the coffee, the more they appear yellow.
It Can Cause Bothersome Tooth Sensitivity
Enamel is vital in protecting your teeth from bothersome sensitivity issues and cavities. That means when this enamel wears away due to the erosion caused by bacteria, you can experience teeth sensitivity. Tooth sensitivity is particularly bothersome when consuming foods of different temperatures.
It Can Cause Dehydration
In most cases, many people require a bathroom break after drinking coffee because its caffeine acts as a diuretic, meaning water is sucked out of your cells and channeled to your bladder often, causing dehydration. Your vital body organs, like salivary glands, are typically cut off to ensure your bladder receives adequate water.
That means you will have little saliva in your mouth to wash away coffee tannins from your mouth and neutralize its acidity, putting you at risk of cavities. To avoid this, maintain a high water intake throughout the day and have an extra glass after every cup of coffee to ensure your mouth is hydrated.
If you are concerned about the impacts of your daily cup of coffee on your teeth, you should speak with a reliable dentist. A seasoned dentist can recommend ways to mitigate the impact of coffee on your teeth.
How to Mitigate the Impact of Coffee on Your Teeth
Fortunately, if you love coffee and cannot stop drinking it, your dentist can recommend steps you can take to lessen its impact on your dental health. The following tips can make your daily cup of coffee less damaging to your dental health:
Drink Your Coffee Faster
You do not have to drink your entire glass of coffee within a few minutes. Instead, you should try reserving no more than thirty minutes for coffee rather than sipping it over many hours. Drinking your usual caffeine amount but in reduced volumes can also help reduce the time your teeth are exposed to coffee acidity.
Replace Your Cup of Coffee With Tea
Although black tea has similar staining effects on your teeth, like coffee, white and green tea have reduced tannins. According to a 2018 study, adult Japanese who frequently consumed green tea are likely to have excellent oral and dental health than those who drank coffee.
Drink Your Coffee Using a Straw
One of the simplest ways to lessen the impact of coffee on your dental health is by drinking it using a straw. Using a straw to drink your coffee lessens its contact with the surface of your teeth as long as the straw is positioned correctly in your mouth. It can help avoid noticeable stains because the coffee will be more on the inside of the teeth than the outside, which means the front of the teeth will not be as affected.
Cut the Sugar
Every scoop of sugar you add to your cup of coffee daily can increase your risks of dental caries and cavities because it creates an excellent breeding ground for mouth bacteria. Cavities are small holes that form on the surface of your teeth when acidic secretions released by mouth bacteria erode your teeth' enamel.
If you love sweetening your coffee, replacing the sugar with artificial sweeteners like xylitol could help lessen its impact on your teeth.
Add Some Milk to Your Coffee
Milk naturally neutralizes substances that can discolor your teeth. According to some research, adding milk to your coffee can lessen its staining effects because of the protective properties of the protein known as casein. Also, milk is rich in vital nutrients like calcium, keeping your teeth strong and healthy.
However, regardless of whether your coffee has milk, brushing your teeth afterward is an excellent idea to wash away the milk's carbohydrate residue.
Avoid Acidic Drinks or Foods Before Taking Your Coffee
Aside from increasing your odds of developing cavities, drinking acidic drinks or eating acidic foods before taking your coffee could weaken your teeth' enamel, making you susceptible to discoloration. When you switch to your daily cup of coffee, these tannins will not have challenges sticking to microscopic crannies and nooks of your teeth.
According to a 2021 study of teeth soaked in different liquids, including milk, soda, water, and orange juice, before soaking them in a cup of coffee, the ones soaked in soda and orange juice acquired the most stains.
Drink and Rinse Your Mouth Using Water Immediately After Drinking Your Coffee
Once you finish drinking coffee, drinking and swishing some water around your mouth is a great idea. Doing that helps wash away the stain-causing tannins and neutralizes the coffee's acidity in the mouth, protecting your dental health.
Practice Excellent Oral and Dental Care Routine
Brushing and flossing your teeth daily can help protect them against harmful acidic substances that erode the tooth enamel. When you maintain an excellent oral and dental care routine, your teeth will become more resistant to discoloration and staining caused by daily coffee consumption.
Your dentist could recommend upgrading to an electric toothbrush to effectively remove plaque and tannins left lingering on the surface of your teeth after drinking coffee. A tooth-whitening toothpaste can also help remove superficial stains caused by your coffee-drinking habit.
However, once you drink coffee or any acidic drink, it is wise to wait at least fifteen minutes before brushing your teeth. The 15-minute wait period gives your teeth' enamel time to recover and re-harden after exposure to acidic substances.
Incorporate Fruit and Vegetables into Your Diet
Less acidic and fibrous fruits like mangoes can help scrub your teeth to remove the tannins and stimulate your salivary glands to release more saliva, which helps neutralize coffee acidity in your mouth. While they are not as effective as brushing your teeth, eating crunchy and fibrous vegetables and fruits can reduce or prevent enamel erosion once you drink your daily cup of coffee.
Schedule Regular Dental Cleanings Visits With Your Dentist
During your regular dental cleaning, your dentist can remove stubborn coffee stains that you cannot remove through your regular oral care routine, like brushing. Scheduling regular dental visits (at least twice a year) allows your dentist to examine your oral and dental health.
If your dentist detects stains that could affect your smile's appearance, he/she will recommend appropriate treatment immediately before the situation becomes worse. Scaling and root planing are cosmetic dental procedures your dentist could recommend to remove stubborn coffee stains from your teeth.
This procedure is vital if the stains and plaque on the surface of your teeth put you at risk of gum disease. During the scaling procedure, your dentist will scrape away all the plaque and stains above and below your gum line. Once the dentist removes the plaque, he/she will smoothen the rough surfaces of your tooth roots to allow your gums to reattach to the teeth.
Fortunately, the procedure is painless and comfortable. Your dentist will apply local or topical anesthesia to numb the affected area of your mouth.
Generally speaking, coffee has a negative reputation for eroding and discoloring your teeth. However, if you love to jumpstart your day with a glass of coffee, the good news is that you certainly do not have to avoid it entirely to protect your dental health and teeth appearance.
When you follow the above tips, including scheduling frequent visits with your dentist for deep teeth cleaning, you can mitigate the impacts of coffee on your teeth. For the best dental treatment and teeth-whitening services, you should ensure the dentist you choose is:
- Qualified and experienced
- Credible and reputable
- Insured and licensed
- Cost-friendly
- Courteous and friendly
- Accessible and available
These tips can lessen your options to find a dependable cosmetic dentist as soon as possible. During your initial appointment with your dentist, you should be able to tell whether your dentist is competent. If the dentist's clinic is unhygienic or disorganized, you should take that as a red flag about his/her competency and find another reliable expert.
Find a Credible Dentist Near Me
While coffee is not the best friend to your dental health, enjoying this drink while maintaining your pearly whites is possible. The key to ensuring that is possible is talking to your dentist to recommend teeth-whitening options and ways to reduce the impact of coffee on your dental health.
With a proactive approach to your dental and oral health, you can still enjoy morning coffee without compromising the aesthetic appearance of your smile and your teeth' health. We invite you to call our reliable dentists at Northridge Advanced Dentistry at 818-701-3010 if you are worried about the impacts of your daily cup of coffee on your dental health and smile appearance.
Our seasoned cosmetic dentists can evaluate the impact of coffee on your teeth and recommend treatments or ways you can lessen its effects for optimal dental health.
