Top 5 foods that cause staining on teeth

Regular brushing, flossing and visits to the dentist may keep your teeth healthy. But you also should watch what you eat and drink. Several different qualities of foods and beverages make them capable of staining your teeth. If what you're eating or drinking has an intense color, for example, you can be pretty sure it will hang around on your choppers. That color comes from something called a chromogen, a pigment-producing substance that has the ability to latch on to dental enamel and stain teeth.

Foods and beverages that have high acidity levels can erode your teeth enamel, which then gives chromogens even more opportunities to latch on and stick around. Tannins, a type of food compound that binds and precipitates proteins, also help chromogens stick to your enamel.

TOP 5 foods that you cause staining on teeth:

5. Wine

Wine is one of the biggest tooth-staining beverages around. Particularly the red wine: It's acidic; it contains chromogens; and it's full of tannins, naturally occurring plant polyphenols found in grapes, among other foods, that give wine an astringent taste. Tannic acid can etch into tooth enamel, allowing the color to seep into your teeth. This trifecta working together can turn your pearly whites a shade of dingy purplish-red in no time -- just sipping red wine with dinner can be enough to produce dark stains on teeth.

White wine causes its own set of troubles. Even though you won't get the obvious staining as you might with red wine, when you drink a glass of white wine, you're still consuming a highly acidic, tannin-rich beverage. Those components make your teeth more susceptible to staining by other foods and beverages you take in directly after imbibing.

4. Coffee and Tea

Containing tannic acids, coffee and tea are big offenders when it comes to staining your teeth. The problem here is that tooth enamel, or a tooth's outer layer, is really porous. Beverages can therefore seep into those pores and stay there. Coffee is full of chromogens, causing stains on your enamel that make your teeth look discolored over time.

Tea, usually seen as a healthy beverage, is just as bad as coffee -- if not worse -- when it comes to staining teeth, because it's full of tannins. Tannin-rich black tea causes the most problems for your teeth; herbal, green and white teas are not as likely to stain them.

3. Fruits and Vegetables
Pigmented molecules that give blackberries, blueberries, cherries, beets and similar fruits and vegetables their rich color also stick to tooth enamel. Rinse your mouth or brush your teeth after eating them to keep stains at bay.

Furthermore, anything made with fruits and vegetables, including juices, can stain your teeth, too. Red-colored juices, particularly grape juice, which has the same staining elements as red wine, are especially tough on white teeth. Citric juices, such as orange and grapefruit juice, naturally contain citric acid, which leads to enamel erosion.

2. Sauces

Richly colored sauces can also seep into your tooth enamel and cause staining, so you'll have to be careful about how much of them you consume. Be on the lookout for dark or brightly colored sauces -- a good rule of thumb is that if the liquid could stain your clothes, it'll probably stain your teeth. Soy sauce and sauces containing balsamic vinegar also fall into this category. Advice: Start your meal with some stain-fighting vegetables like spinach or broccoli before you dip into the sauce. These veggies create a protective film on your teeth that covers up and shields the porous enamel.

1. Candy

Any sweets contain coloring agents such as blue or red dyes, or even vegetable juices. Although these bright hues make eating sweets a lot more fun, they can also promote staining of your tooth enamel. A good rule of thumb to use in this case is, if it stains your tongue, it'll probably stain your teeth. Watch out for culprits like popsicles, too, because they may turn your teeth colors as well. This is especially true if you eat them often. Keep the sweets to a minimum, though, and your teeth will shine more brightly.

Source: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/5-foods-cause-staining-on-teeth6.htm