This holiday season, you have a busy schedule full of get-togethers. You have your work party, where you’d like to impress your boss, as well as several family dinners, where you want to show your concerned relatives that you’re doing well. To prepare for the festivities, you get your teeth professionally whitened so that your smile looks its best.
But if you want to hold onto your teeth’s brilliance, you’ll need to be more careful about what you eat and drink, especially soon after having the procedure done. What should you stay away from or at least limit for the next little while? Check out these common staining foods and beverages to avoid in order to keep your teeth whitening results.
Acidic Foods and Drinks
While professional teeth whitening is perfectly safe, some patients report feeling some sensitivity after treatment. For a while after you’ve brightened your smile, you shouldn’t have drinks or foods with high acidity or sugar content, which can include citrus fruit, soda, candy, juice or sports drinks.
Other acidic foods may surprise you, like pineapple, pickled foods, processed meats, and tomatoes, and even sugar-free sports drinks. You should also be careful when drinking exceptionally hot or cold beverages because your teeth may react more sensitively than usual to these extreme temperatures.
Dark Beverages
You don’t have to worry only about beverages’ acidic content but also their coloration. Again, dark soda finds its way onto this naughty list. However, if you have too much of your seasonal and everyday favorites like coffee, hot chocolate, and even red wine, stains tend to return to teeth much faster. Perhaps for the holidays, you can have hot chocolate sparingly, stick with a white wine for special occasions, and drink your coffee through a straw when you pick it up from the barista.
Some Colored Fruits and Vegetables
Vegetables and fruit are undoubtedly nutritious and beneficial for you, but some deeply pigmented ones can leave traces of color on your teeth. For example, pomegranates, grapes, berries, purple cabbage, beets, and even leafy greens and carrots can lead to discoloration if eaten in excess.
Fortunately, there are lots of fruits and vegetables that won’t have a negative impact on the whiteness of your teeth. Cauliflower and mashed potatoes, for instance, are already white and unlikely to stain your teeth.
Dark Sauces
Dishes containing soy sauce, tomato sauce, glazes, and the like are delicious and common throughout the year, even during the holidays, but these dark liquids come with some risk to your pearly whites. More lightly colored sauces should pose less of a threat.
Ultimately, you want to have a jolly holiday season, which includes enjoying the foods and drinks you love. While these items can stain your teeth, you don’t have to abstain from them completely. Perhaps consider making simple switches or just limiting how much you have to keep your smile looking radiant and bright.
About the Practice
At Beach Dental, Dr. Alexis Gersten and Dr. Jason Parli have served patients from the Westhampton Beach, East Quogue, Manorville, East Moriches, and Westhampton areas. In addition to essential and advanced care, we offer cosmetic services like teeth whitening, veneers, and gum recontouring to improve your smile’s appearance and confidence. If you would like to get professional teeth whitening treatment, you can schedule an appointment by visiting our Contact Us page or calling us at 631-325-0731.