Teeth Staining is a B-I-T-C-H bitch. There I said it. It will creep up on you when you least suspect it or deserve it. It effects some people more than others. It can be uncomfortable to remove and it’ll cost you in extra appointments - I have some patients who see me every 6 weeks to manage stain, specialised toothpastes and whitening treatments. See I told you it was a bitch.

Usually the most effective way of tackling tooth stain is through a professional cleaning with your Dental Hygienist and or a professional whitening treatment as prescribed by your Dentist. Unfortunately this isn’t always available to us (like right now when we are in the middle of a pandemic - if you’re reading this later yay its over!) or practical if you’re not suitable for a whitening treatment.

Thankfully, there are some things we can do outside of your dental practice to prevent and or manage staining at home and for this we’ll have to start at where this stain starts in the first place.

The usual suspects for staining are:

Tea especially Green Tea
Coffee
Tumeric Lattes
Red Wine
Tomato Based Sauces
Spicy Food
Antibacterial Chlorhexidine Based Mouthwash like Corsodyl
Smoking & Vaping

These will effect some people more than others, usually because of teeth alignment and crowding, teeth that sit a little further forward or further back tend to pick up more stain (you can see how I’m getting on with my Invisalign treatment here), or the amount of each of these things you are eating drinking or using.

One of the sure fire ways to reduce staining is to stop or reduce consumption of these foods and drinks.

You should use mouth-rinses as directed by your Dentst or Dental Hygienist or switch to an antibacterial mouthwash that will cause minimal staining like Curaprox Perio Plus Mouthwash or Listerine Gum Treatment Mouthwash or you could avoid using a mouthwash altogether.

You really shouldn’t be smoking. Full Stop. The best thing for your gum health, general health and risk for oral cancer is not to smoke. If you’re using vaping as a means to quit, be careful with berry flavoured oils as they will cause a lot of stain, you can find out more about vaping in my blog post here.

The cleaner you keep you teeth at home, the less likely it should be that you will get staining as you will be disturbing the staining component before it can settle on you teeth and it will prevent tartar build up, which absorbs stain very easily. You should be:

“Depending on my patient, I will recommend an antibacterial mouthwash. The most readily available option that I recommend is usually a Corsodyl Daily which does cause stain. Actually, its the Chlorhexidine that’s present in this mouthwash that will amplify the staining caused by the usual suspects that we talked about above. For this reason, I don’t recommend it to everyone and when I do, I recommend using it ONCE a day LAST THING AT NIGHT. Staining is a necessary evil of this mouthwash, there are alternatives as we mentioned above, or if you’re worried about staining just leave this step out.”

Using something in between your teeth, like floss, an interdental brush or a water flosser, at least once a day.
Brushing your teeth twice a day, with a soft toothbrush like the Curaprox 5460 toothbrush* or an electric toothbrush with a pressure sensor like the Oral B Genius 9000*.
Using a fluoride toothpaste - we’ll talk more about these in a minute.

Rinsing, with a mouth rinse, is an extra stage that you can add here, but it is helpful but not essential.

Stain removal toothpastes make big promises, but can sometimes fall a bit flat. I have had patients who have had huge success using these, and some not so much. If you have tooth wear and are selecting a stain removing toothpaste you need to be VERY careful with abrasive toothpastes. My favourite stain remover toothpaste is the Curaprox Be You Toothpaste as it gently removes stain via enzymes so it is super gentle. I’ve reviewed this toothpaste on my YouTube channel which I’ll link here. The best option to dramatically change the colour or shade of your teeth though is a whitening treatment…

Which brings me nicely on to.. whitening treatments!!! Whitening treatments must be prescribed by your Dentist and are a great option for brightening your teeth and removing stains which have become encorportated into the surface of your tooth over time. If you have previously had teeth whitening and would like to use it during this lockdown situation you need to make sure that your whitening trays still fit and your whitening gel is still in date. My go to for teeth whitening is the Enlighten Teeth Whitening System, which is a two step process available at Moira Cosmetic Dental, its great if you have sensitive teeth and its money guaranteed too - bonus!!

So hopefully this blog post has helped a little in the war against teeth staining, probably one of the best things you can do is be nice and patient and wait until you can have you teeth cleaned professional with your Dental Hygienist, avoid ‘at home remedies’ and prevent staining becoming worse by avoiding or reducing consumption of those usual staining suspects and stopping smoking and vaping. Don’t brush too hard, unfortunately that stain will never come off with a toothbrush. Thankyou so much for reading <3.

*gifted products