If you’ve recently had cosmetic dentistry treatments in Mount Pleasant such as veneers or teeth whitening, you may be wondering how you can keep your smile looking bright for years to come. Great at-home oral hygiene and regular checkups at Advanced Dentistry of Mount Pleasant are important, but so is your diet. In this quick guide, we’ll discuss a few common foods and drinks you may want to reduce or avoid after your treatment.
If you drink a lot of coffee, tea, and wine, you may end up staining your teeth again. If you’ve got veneers, you won’t have to worry about stains on your veneers, but your natural teeth could still become stained with excessive consumption of these beverages.
Of course, you don’t have to completely avoid staining beverages like coffee. That’s not an option for most people! Instead, our recommendation is to drink them in moderation. You should also rinse your mouth or brush your teeth after you drink coffee, wine, tea, cola, or other drinks that can stain your teeth.
Drinking through a straw is also a good idea, when possible. When you drink through a straw, you minimize the contact of the beverage with your teeth. This can help prevent stains from the compounds in these drinks.
As far as foods go, another common cause of stains are acidic, staining sauces. Tomato sauces, for example, can contribute to tooth stains. So can sauces that are used in lots of Asian cuisine, like soy sauce. Some types of curries may also contain lots of pigments and compounds that can stain your teeth.
Again, you don’t necessarily have to cut these foods out altogether. But rinsing or brushing after you eat is a good way to keep your teeth looking bright. A good rule of thumb is that if a sauce will easily stain your clothes, it could easily stain your teeth, so keep this in mind.
This is more relevant to patients with veneers, but in general, everyone should avoid biting and chewing on extremely hard foods. Veneers are really strong, but certain hard foods can put strain on them and may cause them to crack and break. That’s true of your natural teeth, too.
To avoid cracking or breaking a veneer or a tooth, we recommend that you avoid chewing on ice. Other common culprits include hard candies and popcorn kernels. Biting and chewing on these foods could damage your veneers or your natural teeth, and should be avoided.
At Advanced Dentistry of Mount Pleasant, Dr. Candice Vinson specializes in smile makeovers. If you’re not happy with your smile and feel self-conscious, we’re here to help in Mount Pleasant. Dr. Vinson is always accepting new patients, and would love to meet you and explore how you can improve your smile with cosmetic dentistry. Contact us online now, or give us a call at (843) 936-1690 to schedule a consultation.
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