- Felipe Llambias (@felipellambias)
- BBC News World
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Drinking coffee or taking care of your teeth so they don’t stain: a real or false dichotomy?
Maybe you are one of those who brushes your teeth in the morning following having a coffee for breakfast, or maybe you are one of those who does it before.
In both cases, the question arises: what is the best, to get rid of bad breath from the mouth as soon as we get out of bed or to brush following eating the first meal of the day?
Another question also arises: what is the best way to avoid stains in the teeth coffee or other products we consume?
Coffee is a popular drink that, when entering the mouth, inevitably comes into contact with the teeth.
It is an acidic liquid – its pH is around 5 on a scale that goes from 1 to 14 – and it contains tannins, factors that promote stains on teeth.
But why do these spots form?
The first thing to know is that there are two types: intrinsic and extrinsic.
Intrinsic stains are those that are under the dental enamel and that can be congenital or acquired throughout life due to, for example, trauma.
The extrinsic ones are the most common, they remain on the surface of the tooth and are caused precisely by the pigments in coffee, tea, red wine, mate (for those from the Southern Cone), soft drinks, juices and some foods such as the red fruits.
“Drinks like coffee or wine have colors – brown, red – so they stain the tooth just like they would stain clothes“, Explains BBC Mundo Emily Anderson, dental hygienist of the Association of Dental Hygienists of Florida (USA).
In any case, among the foods that leave their mark on the teeth, coffee is not one of the worst.
“It doesn’t produce as many stains as red wine or some types of teas,” says André Reis, clinical associate professor of dentistry at the University of Florida.
Once in the mouth is where a concept that we have heard a lot regarding in toothpaste commercials comes into play: to the plate.
What is plate? It is a colony of bacteria that forms on the teeth.
“Those bacteria love to eat the sugars that go into your mouth, and when they do, they produce acids. So actually it is acid that attacks the teeth“, dice Anderson.
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Pigments from coffee and other beverages lodge once morest the gums and on the sides of the tooth, which is where plaque builds up.
Y plaque is a great absorbent of pigments.
With beverages like coffee, “you’ll see the stain between your teeth and at the gum line, because that’s where plaque builds up,” says Anderson.
The interaction of food with saliva causes plaque to harden and that is where another concept that appears regularly in is formed: tartar.
Most stains are removed with a dental cleaning at the dentist’s office, something that should be done on average twice a year, although it varies from mouth to mouth. By removing plaque or tartar, stains disappear.
If in-office cleaning isn’t enough, the patient can turn to carbamide peroxide or hydrogen peroxide whitening techniques under professional supervision, says Reis (doing so without specialist help can aggravate the situation).
brushing
The answer to why plaque forms on teeth is generally the same.
“In most people, extrinsic staining occurs because they don’t brush good neither one the floss correctlyif they do,” explains Anderson.
For this reason, it recommends a good brushing, gently, directing the brush towards the gum lines and forming small circles, twice a day, and the use of dental floss at least once a day following brushing.
It is not necessary to hit the brush hard to remove food debris and bacteria from the mouth; On the contrary, doing so damages the gums.
Anderson mentions the recommendation of twice a day, as indicated by the American Dental Association, but in several Latin American countries, dental societies recommend brushing your teeth three times a day.
“Here they talk regarding twice a day, but I come from a culture where it was three times a day,” says Reis, a Brazilian national.
image source, Getty Images
Most people don’t brush and floss properly, which promotes plaque buildup.
In the cases of lunch and dinner, it is clear that brushing has to be following eating. But with breakfast there are different customs; some do it before and others do it following.
Doing it before drinking coffee has its advantages; the possible plaque that has been generated in the mouth during the night is eliminated and, therefore, the color of the infusion will not adhere so easily.
However, both Anderson and Reis agree that the ideal is to do it following the morning meal.
“This way you won’t build up plaque in your mouth for as long,” says Reis.
“Simply brushing your teeth before drinking those drinks would probably won’t help, because the problem occurs over time. It’s not just one time you drink coffee. Stains and plaque build up over time,” says Anderson.
Even more: the healthiest thing for oral hygiene is not to brush your teeth immediately following eating, but to wait half an hour.
“Our teeth go through a process of demineralization and remineralization every day. When acids enter the mouth and bacteria are producing acid with sugars, tooth enamel is attacked by acid,” explains the specialist.
“When that process is happening, tooth enamel is vulnerable. So it’s best not to brush on top of that,” he says.
To reduce the interaction of acids with the enamel -and thus reduce the possibility of staining-, the advice of the dental hygienist is drink water immediately following ingestion and thus neutralize its effects.
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