It’s almost 2020 and a Hollywood smile isn’t just for celebrities. We all want those really pretty straight and shiny white teeth. But most of us choose to go about it the wrong way. Instead of thinking how to prevent staining and keep your teeth healthy, we instead choose to spend a fortune on electric toothbrushes and whitening products, which can actually damage the enamel of your teeth, which is the opposite of what you want. So here are a few things that ruin your smile and you should definitely stop doing.
1. Drinking Fizzy Drinks
Fizzy drinks are horrible for your teeth. If you drink them throughout the day you’re essentially just letting sugar sit on your teeth all day long and basically asking for cavities in the future. It’s no secret that sugar causes tooth decay and fizzy drinks are like 90% sugar. On top of that, fizzy drinks lower the PH level in your mouth which can weaken the enamel and cause discoloration on your teeth.
2. Smoking
Smoking kills, we know this. But it also causes deep stains on your teeth, it causes bad breath and can lead to cancer. So if you want a nice white Hollywood smile we suggest you just quit smoking if you still do. Because no amount of gum or mints that you have after a smoke can save you from the long term stains smoking can cause over the years.
3. E-cigs and Vaping
Lots of people think that if they stop old-school smoking and just vape instead – they’re essentially tricked the system and can keep their fresh breath and pearly whites while still getting their nicotine. That’s not exactly true. So far the long term effects of vaping haven’t been studied yet, but the few studies that have been done show that e-cigs and vaping still kills cells in your mouth and can damage your gums, which in turn will have a very bad effect on your teeth. It’s best to just not mess with nicotine at all.
4. Drinking Coffee And Tea
So most of us know that drinking coffee can stain our teeth, but we thought tea was pretty safe. Well turns out black tea works exactly the same as coffee when it comes to the whiteness of our teeth. Most of us have small cracks in our teeth enamel and when the coffee or tea gets there it can cause a stain. Are you also thinking of switching to green tea as a source of caffeine from now on?
5. Drinking Wine
I always thought that a glass of wine with your dinner isn’t exactly bad for you, but turns out wine can stain your teeth too. Especially if it’s red wine. But also certain wines have sugars in them so it’s not exactly great for your teeth either. So the new rule is, a glass of white wine is fine, but don’t go crazy overboard with red wine, ladies.
6. Grinding
You know how sometimes you just get angry as hell and clench your teeth in the effort to either restrain yourself from saying something rude or just to let out some of the anger? Yeah, that’s bad for your teeth, it can cause micro-cracks which with time will only get worse. And the most annoying thing is that some of us clench our jaw without realizing it in our sleep. So while you can try to control your jaw when you’re awake, if you have a sneaky suspicion you grind your teeth in your sleep – get a night guard.
7. Eating Sticky Foods
If you love taffy and other kinds of sweet treats we have bad news for you. All sugars are bad for your teeth and will cause cavities but the sticky ones are the worst because they become stuck in between your teeth and you don’t even notice. And the longer those food particles stay in between your teeth, the more damage they do to the enamel.
8. Lip and Tongue Piercing
Yes, it looks cool, we can’t deny that, but the lip and tongue piercings are bad news for your teeth. You will inevitably want to play with your piercing without even noticing and that means you’re knocking on your teeth with metal all day every day. The results are kind of horrible, first, you start with micro-cracks and abrasions on your teeth, then you get super sensitive teeth and in the worst-case scenario, over time, you can actually shatter a tooth with your piercing.