How to Prevent Wine Stains on Teeth

You’re sit­ting down to a nice meal. A friend offers to pour you a glass of your favourite red.

But wait! Your den­tist rec­om­mended avoid­ing things that can stain your teeth. Things like cof­fee, and smok­ing. You’re lim­it­ing your cof­fee, and you quit smoking…

Do you quit red wine too? Well, if you’re really seri­ous about get­ting whiter teeth, you might have to.
Red wine will stain your teeth for a few reasons.

First, the inten­sity of colour, or chro­mogen, in wine is very high. That alone can be enough to stain your teeth if you have weak tooth enamel. But, also con­sider the acid­ity of red wine. The acid found in red wine will etch away at your tooth enamel, allow­ing the colour inten­sity to work even more.

Lastly, think about the tan­nins. Tan­nins are mol­e­cules in red wine that want to bind to some­thing: namely your teeth. Tan­nins play a big part in the aging process of wine.

 

7 Ways to Pre­vent Wine Stains on Your Teeth

1. Sip and swirl water or club soda.

The water or club soda will neu­tral­ize and rinse away the acidic effects of the wine you’re drink­ing. If you’re care­ful, you can min­i­mize the amount of acid left on your teeth. That’ll help keep your teeth whiter for longer.

2. Eat some abra­sive food.

With your wine, try eat­ing cel­ery, apple, orange, or lemon. The abra­sive tex­ture and the acidic nature of the fruit can help scrub away stained colour.

3. Snack on cheese.

On top of fruits and abra­sive veg­eta­bles, cheese can help coun­ter­act tooth stain­ing from wine as well. The pro­tein in cheese can act as a bar­rier, pro­tect­ing your teeth from harm.

4. Chew gum after wine.

No, it’s not the aspar­tame or the ‘gum­mi­ness’ of gum that will help. Chew­ing gum will make your mouth pro­duce saliva. That saliva helps to rinse away any harm­ful agents attack­ing your teeth and re-mineralizes your tooth enamel. Col­lec­tively, saliva does a lot for you.

5. DON’T brush your teeth. (Not right away, anyways.)

Keep your tooth­brush tucked away for at least one hour after you enjoy a glass of wine. If you brush too soon, you’ll only increase wear-and-tear on your teeth, which sets you up for stains in the future. Give your saliva a chance to do its work.

6. Use whiten­ing strips.

Whiten­ing strips are designed to lift away exactly these kinds of stains: sur­face stains that come from what your teeth go through every day. If you want a more pro­fes­sional solu­tion, visit your den­tist and ask him or her about pro­fes­sional tooth whiten­ing. And while you’re there…

7. Get reg­u­lar den­tal cleanings.

Teeth that have more plaque and tar­tar build-up are more vul­ner­a­ble to pick­ing up stains as you enjoy your wine. Clean, smooth teeth are more resilient to staining.

 

Hey, What About White Wine?

If you think you can “cheat” by switch­ing to white wine, well you’re only halfway cheat­ing. White wine may lack the intense, stain­ing colour of red wine, but it still has all the acid­ity of red.

White wine acid­ity still eats away your tooth enamel, which makes you more vul­ner­a­ble to other stain­ing either from food, cof­fee, smok­ing, or any­thing else.

Stick to the 7 ways above even with white wine and you’ll have a much bet­ter shot at keep­ing those teeth of yours whiter.

Don’t let the risk of pos­si­ble tooth stains turn you off wine. Lots of peo­ple don’t notice any stain­ing dif­fer­ence. But some do.

Why are some peo­ple more affected than oth­ers? Could be stronger tooth enamel. Could be bet­ter genet­ics, with their bod­ies just pro­duc­ing stronger teeth. Tak­ing care of your teeth at a young age con­sis­tently (brush­ing and floss­ing) makes a big difference.

When it comes down to it, a glass or two of wine every now and again is not a huge threat to your den­tal health. Take care of your teeth with the steps above and you should be just fine.