A dentist did an experiment to find out which of four drinks, tea, coffee, cola and red wine, stains the teeth the most. He claimed he was “shocked” by the results.
A dentist’s experiment Photo: TikTok video capture
Dr. Miles Madison, a dentist in Beverly Hills, California, extracted four teeth that he left in coffee, tea, cola or red wine for 10 days.
The dentist, who is called the “father of gums” on social networks, spoke about the results of the experiment in a video posted on TikTok.
Revealing the result for coffee, Dr. Madison showed how the crown had taken on a yellow hue and the root a deep brown.
“It’s much darker than when I started and especially the root surface, which doesn’t have as much mineral as enamel, has really stainedhe said.
In contrast, the results for tea, although similar, were not as changeable, with the root taking on a lighter shade of brown.
“It stained just as well, but not as badly (like coffee). You can see that the root has stained much more than the enamel,” said Dr. Madison.
A cup of Coca Cola also had a dramatic effect on a tooth, not only staining it a dark shade, but actually eating away at the structure creating little ‘pits’. Dr. Madison attributed this to the acidic properties of the drink.
“Coca Cola not only turned the tooth black but caused these little pits because the acid ate away the enamel and also some of the root structure“, he added.
The red wine stained the whole tooth
Instead, it was the result of the tooth kept for 10 days in a cup of red wine that surprised the dentist the most. The red wine had a shocking effect on the tooth, turning it almost entirely purple.
“The red wine stained the whole tooth. It stained the enamel, the root, everything‘, he said, concluding: “Red wine definitely causes the most stains.”
It should be noted, however, that the experiment does not reflect real life conditions, since people do not soak their teeth in a liquid for 10 consecutive days.
However, popular beverages such as coffee, tea and wine, as well as other habits such as smoking, are well known to stain teeth.
In most cases, staining is a purely cosmetic issue and does not indicate any problem with the teeth themselves, and most stains can be removed.
But persistent yellow teeth can be a sign that people are brushing too quickly after consuming acidic foods such as fruit or drinks such as Coca Cola, the Daily Mail reports. And this is because acidic items can weaken the white enamel of the teeth for a short period of time.
If the teeth are brushed in this weakened state, it can reveal the slightly yellower part of the tooth called dentin, changing the overall shade.
Certain medications, such as the antibiotic tetracycline, are also known to change the color of teeth due to an interaction with saliva that turns teeth brown or gray.
While most tooth discolorations are nothing to worry about, dentists advise people to watch out for one change in particular. They say that if a tooth or sometimes several teeth turn gray, this can be a sign of nerve damage and should be reported to a dentist.
