The 11 Things That Stain Your Teeth The Most

Plus some tips on how to keep your teeth white

- Adam Hurly

It’s hard to keep your teeth clean. Many tasty foods are either sugary or acidic, which means they slowly eat away at the enamel on your teeth. Then other delicious things, like wine and tomato sauce and beets, straight up splash your pearly whites with all sorts of unsightly stains.

On a normal day, you start with coffee, then at lunch you dress your salad with balsamic vinegar, you drink a can of Coke for a pick-me-up, smoke a cigarette, make curry for dinner, then wind down with a glass (or two) of red wine. This is the absolute best way to stain your teeth. You may as well brush your teeth with yellowish-brown paint.

So the dilemma is obvious. How do you keep enjoying these ‘vices’ without leaving stains on your teeth? We were happy to learn that it’s possible to do both. We sought the professional opinion of aesthetic dentist Dr. Michael Apa, who is so hardcore about this topic that he started his own line of teeth brightening oral care products.

We asked Dr. Apa to outline the 11 most offensive stainers and to offer some pointers on how we can continue enjoying these things while proactively keeping our teeth white.

The 11 most offensive teeth stainers

1. BALSAMIC VINEGAR

Dark pigments and sticky consistency will leave stains in their wake.

2. SOY SAUCE

Same deal.

3. FRUIT JUICES