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Keeping Your Pearly Whites: 5 Foods to Eat and Avoid

Having a healthy mouth is an asset. Your teeth play an important role in your life. It makes digesting food easier when you chew it. Having a full set of teeth allows you to talk and speak clearly. Your face shape is also defined by your teeth.

Having a great smile is also beneficial in other ways. When you have a toothpaste-commercial smile, you feel more confident around people — an attribute needed for socializing, building careers, and developing relationships. However, a white and bright smile is not something everyone has. Yellowish teeth can cause you to feel less confident.

You can ask for the help of teeth whitening professionals in Guelph for clinical solutions to the discolouration. At the same time, you can also check on your diet for possible causes for staining. The food that you eat can affect how your teeth will look. Here are some foods that can stain your teeth:

Balsamic Vinegar

Salads taste fresher and more delicious with a salad dressing using balsamic vinegar. The only downside to indulging in your favourite healthy meal is the colour it gives your teeth. The dark colour of balsamic vinegar sticks to the teeth and causes discolouration.

Tip to reduce staining: Toss in some lettuce when you eat a salad with balsamic dressing. The lettuce helps remove the balsamic vinegar from your teeth.

Berries

Eating berries is good for you. While they are healthy and full of antioxidants, a lot of times, they can stain your teeth. The strong colour of raspberries, blueberries, and cranberries, together with the acidity of these fruits cause staining on the teeth.

Tip to reduce staining: Drink water when eating berries. The liquid can help rinse your mouth of the colour and keep the effect under control. Water and milk are the best beverages for neutralizing the acidity of the berries.

Curry

If you are a lover of Indian food, curry is delicious. However, it is highly pigmented. The deep yellow hue can stain the teeth over time, so make sure to limit your consumption of curry in your diet.

Tip to reduce staining: When you indulge in curry, you should always eat it with stain-reducing fruits or vegetables like carrots, apples, celery, and cucumbers.

Pasta Sauce

Tomatoes are a great treat for the palate but the staining property is undeniable. Tomatoes are acidic, bright red in colour, and cling to the teeth so the sauce can easily penetrate the enamel leaving the teeth stained.

Tip to reduce staining: Before indulging in your favourite Italian treat, try eating a salad or dark green food like broccoli, kale, or spinach to create a thin film over the teeth and protect it from the staining effects of tomatoes.

Beverages

There are a lot of refreshing drinks available but they are also among the primary culprits for stained teeth. If you are a fan of coffee, tea, sodas, wine, soft drinks, and other coloured drinks, you will also have discoloured teeth and enamel erosion.

Tip to reduce stain: If you cannot avoid drinking these beverages, drink through a straw to avoid staining the teeth. Also make sure to include a lot of water in your diet especially after consuming coloured drinks to flush away the staining components.

Does this mean that you should exclude these food choices in your diet? You can still enjoy them but the primary tip is to eat or drink them in moderation and to drink lots of water to help flush out the stains.

Food that Help Whiten the Teeth

The food choices above are just a few of the things that you can consume in moderation. But just as there are teeth-staining food choices, there are ones that can help you keep your pearly whites shining, too. These are 5 food options that you should include in your diet to ensure a healthy smile:

Cauliflower

One of the foods that requires a lot of chewing is cauliflower. Your teeth will benefit from food options that require you to chew to help in digestion. The long chewing process also allows your mouth to produce more saliva that naturally cleanses the teeth to keep them shining brighter. Encourage your kids to eat their veggies early on so you can keep their trips to childcare clinics in Sharon to regular checks alone.

Strawberries

Keeping Your Pearly Whites

Other berries can cause staining in your teeth but strawberries are an exception. These fruits may be dark but they are packed with enzymes known as malic acid that helps naturally whiten the teeth.

Cheese

Milk and other dairy products are helpful in keeping your smile healthy and white because of the calcium and lactic acid that they contain. Keeping them as a part of your diet means you can get stronger teeth. Chewing on cheese prompts the mouth to produce more saliva to help wash away staining food particles.

Apple

An apple a day does not just keep the doctors away but the tooth whitening treatments, too! Eating more apples or any fruit that requires you to chew a lot is a good cleaning exercise for your mouth. Apples and other crunchy fruits and vegetables also have a scrubbing action when eaten which helps wash away particles from the teeth to help keep them white.

Celery

Make sure to include fibrous fruits and vegetables in your diet. They are good for when you want to lose weight because they are nutrient-rich and low in calories. Aside from that, they are chewy and help the teeth and gums remain healthy by letting you produce more saliva which naturally flushes out staining materials.

Stained teeth are especially prevalent if you are wearing dental instruments like braces. Once your trusted dental braces professional in Oshawa installs the braces, you will be asked to avoid certain food options. These are not just bad for the instruments, they can also cause the teeth to be discoloured. Follow the advice of your dentist to keep your teeth in great shape and colour.

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