Whether your go-to drink at Starbucks is a salted caramel mocha or an espresso, an iced caramel macchiato or a funky-flavored frappucino, every time your teeth take a coffee bath they’re getting hit with stains. Diehard coffee drinkers need their NYC Starbucks – but how do you keep a perfect smile when you’re constantly feeding your craving for a caffeine fix? There are several cosmetic dentistry solutions that let you have your Starbucks and beautiful teeth too.
How Does Coffee Stain Teeth?
Before you can settle on a solution for your stained teeth, it’s important to understand why the stains are so prominent. Sure, you know a coffee habit can give you yellowish or brownish teeth, but it’s what’s in the coffee that’s doing the damage.
Dark-colored beverages simply lead to discoloration of tooth enamel. This outer layer of the tooth gets stained by the pigments in your coffee. Enamel is super-hard and super-strong, however, it is not smooth or flat. The microscopic grooves and ridges in your enamel grasp onto miniscule food and drink particles – and, ta-da, hello stains.
When coffee becomes embedded in the pits of your tooth enamel, permanent stains can result. Even if you’re a fan of the lighted-colored Starbucks beverages, even if you switch from black coffee to coffee with creamer, coffee is coffee – it’s hitting your teeth and it’s sticking around, whatever form it’s in.
Practical Methods for Preventing Coffee Stains on Your Teeth
Of course, you know the most effective way to save yourself from coffee stains is to give up the java. We know that for many New Yorkers, coffee is the life’s blood that keeps you going from morning to night. So, then what?
There are best practices to adopt where coffee is concerned that can help cut back on the stains. Instead of sipping on your drinks all day, have a cup of joe at one sitting. You’re exposing your teeth to dark pigments for a shorter time instead of allowing them to swim around in caffeine all day. If you chase your cup of coffee by rinsing your teeth with a glass of water or even doing a quick brush, you’re doing your tooth enamel a big favor.
Seeing your Midtown dentist twice a year for thorough cleanings will certainly help keep your teeth clean and happy too, but stains are stains – if they’re deep in the enamel, there are only a few types of smile makeover treatments that can correct the problem.
Cosmetic Dentistry Solutions for Coffee-Stained Teeth
If you’ve been a coffee drinker for decades, you may be at the point where no matter how much you brush, you’ll never make a dent in those stains in your enamel. At this stage, over-the-counter whitening treatments certainly won’t help. You may not even be a good candidate for professional teeth whitening.
When coffee stains have permeated the tooth enamel, you need porcelain veneers to cover the scene of the crime. They’re the best way to give you a white smile again, and correct every other cosmetic complaint you have, from misalignment to short teeth to chips and cracks.
The biggest perk of porcelain veneers for coffee-drinkers? Veneers are stain resistant!
Get the perfect smile you want from your Midtown cosmetic dentist, Dr. Michael J. Wei. Contact his Madison Avenue dental office to schedule your appointment today.
