Tooth Stains

Tooth Stains

About the only thing that shines on game shows more than those fabulous showcase prizes are the smiles of the hosts. But while Wink and Chip and Skip and the rest of the hosts have a staff of makeup artists to make sure their smiles are whiter than the Arctic landscape, the rest of us regular folks have only ourselves to keep our teeth stain-free.

And sometimes, that can be harder than Double Jeopardy. Some stains can be handled only by a professional--specifically those caused by the use of certain antibiotics, a high fever or quirks in metabolism. But if you just have day-to-day problems with stained-looking teeth, there are everyday things you can do to improve them.

"Stained teeth are caused by a lot of the things we like: coffee, tea, colas, smoking, even the foods we eat. The obvious suggestion is to give up those things, but that's easier said than done for most people," explains Barry Dale, D.M.D., an Englewood, New Jersey, cosmetic dentist and assistant clinical professor at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. "Even things we don't do can lead to staining. Teeth get more yellow as part of the natural aging process."

But some of the staining can be avoided or removed if you follow this advice.

Make water your chaser. Since coffee, tea and cola--some of our most consumed beverages--cause most of the staining in our diets, caffeine consumers can offset some of the discoloration by swishing water after each cup or glass. "Ideally, you can prevent many stains from forming by brushing after each meal or snack," says David S. Halpern, D.M.D., a dentist in Columbia, Maryland, and a spokesdentist for the Academy of General Dentistry. "But since most people don't do that, I advise my patients to take a cup of water and swish it around after they drink coffee or another staining beverage. Besides diminishing the initial film stain of coffee, it also helps keep their breath relatively fresh."

Eat a lot of crunchy foods. "Consuming apples, celery and other crunchy foods that rub against the teeth helps dislodge debris that can cause staining," adds Dr. Halpern. "I notice there is more of a staining problem in patients who eat a lot of sticky foods."

Keep peroxide for cleaning wounds, not teeth. True, dentists use a peroxide solution to bleach stained teeth. But that doesn't mean you can do it yourself with store-bought varieties. "What we use is a special 35 percent peroxide solution that's very strong," says Dr. Dale. "There's no evidence that rinsing with the 2 percent peroxide you buy at the drugstore will help keep teeth white."

Don't brush too hard. Logic might suggest that the harder you brush, the cleaner you'll get your teeth. But reality says otherwise. "Brushing too vigorously can actually strip some of the enamel off teeth, exposing the darker inner layer called the dentin," says Dr. Dale. His advice: Brush your teeth firmly but not vigorously--and use only soft-bristle brushes, not those with medium or hard bristles. "If you can't remove the stain with regular brushing and toothpaste, then you won't remove it by brushing harder."