Coping with coffee stained teeth?

#1: Post by **RogerB** » November 19th, 2008, 11:20 am

I brush and floss and use mouthwash, and get my teeth professionally cleaned at least twice a year. Just saw the dentist two months ago and already my teeth are horribly stained again from the coffee.

I typically have an espresso in the morning and then one or two "press" cups during the day.

How do you cope? Ditching coffee is not an option. Is there a product that can keep my teeth white between visits to the dentist?

November 19th, 2008, 12:00 pm

Well, I assume you asked the dentist and were told not to drink so much coffee. I would imagine that this varies a lot given mouth conditions, porosity of enamel, etc. Generally I think you want to be fairly careful with tooth whiteners, since they have a tendency to remove structural stuff you'd rather have there, leaving the enamel chalky. But a whitening toothpaste in conjunction with a really good toothbrush should be safe, and you could also try brushing with hydrogen peroxide 3% once a day. I happen to use the Oral-B Triumph series, which seems to work well and which comes with a special whitening head (has a little rubber cup in the center of the head to hold toothpaste like the one the dentist uses after cleaning). Good luck.

Best,
David

#3: Post by **JohnB.** » November 19th, 2008, 1:11 pm

Brushing with a mixture of salt & baking soda does a nice job of keeping your teeth white/whiter.

#4: Post by **Phaelon56** » November 19th, 2008, 1:45 pm

There's a liquid "teeth whitening" mouth rinse now available that seems to do a decent job if used a couple of times each week. I get the Equate brand at Walmart (their store brand version of some name brand advertised product).

#5: Post by **Ozark_61** » November 19th, 2008, 3:48 pm

+1 for the baking soda.

Baking soda toothpaste & a sonocare toothbrush. I don't do it all the time, but a few times a week with the sonocare and other times with a normal toothbrush and it's great. I haven't had my 6 month checkup in... err.... uh.... gee.. hope my wife isn't around...

but my teeth are white. If you have some buildup already, then you may need to do it for a couple of weeks. I also buy that hippie toothpaste that doesn't have flouride in it, but I think it's the important thing is the baking soda that has enough abrasive in it to get the gunk off.

ps - are you eating something that puts a film on your teeth? I don't know all the terminology, but there is a kind of buildup that you can scrape off if you haven't had your teeth cleaned in a while that seems to be the thing that gets stained. That buildup might collect faster with certain kinds of foods. If you use the soda it will grind the film off and you should be in good shape.

#6: Post by **Marshall** » November 20th, 2008, 7:45 pm

Teeth aren't supposed to be brown?

#7: Post by **LaCrema** » November 21st, 2008, 2:38 pm

I've been using a whitening rinse before brushing with a whitening toothpaste, I still get compliments from my patients on how white my teeth are from across the room!