Foods and Drinks to Avoid After Your Professional Teeth Whitening Treatment

Your teeth are exposed to many factors that lead to dental issues like stained teeth. Tooth discoloration comes in a few different types: extrinsic (when stains only affect your outer enamel), intrinsic (when the cause of staining is inside your tooth), and age-related (when the enamel wears away over time to expose the pale yellow dentin underneath).

Teeth whitening is a popular solution for discolored teeth, and while there are many ways to accomplish this, a professional treatment allows you to get faster results in a controlled environment with specialists in this method. But, once you have your teeth nice and bright, how do you keep them that way for as long as possible? 

Dr. Eric Klein and his skilled dental team at Eric Klein D.D.S. & Associates in Norwalk, Connecticut, can help you achieve the whitening results you desire for your teeth and keep them that way. To understand how, let’s look at the professional teeth whitening process and foods and drinks to avoid.

The professional teeth whitening process

The standard professional method of whitening teeth in an office environment is fairly straightforward. After a current record is made of the shade your teeth are before the treatment starts, your teeth are polished with a pumice-like material to clean plaque and particles from their surface. 

To keep your teeth dry, gauze is used. Retractors may be used to keep your lips, cheeks, and tongue away from the whitening solution. After that, the fronts of your teeth are coated with the whitening solution (often either hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide) and a laser is used to cure the solution onto your teeth.

The solution is left on for up to an hour and may be reapplied during that time, depending on what bleaching agent is being used. Once the optimal shade has been achieved, your teeth are rinsed, and a fluoride application is used to ease any sensitivity

What to avoid to keep your teeth white

After your whitening treatment is finished, you’ll want to avoid the following foods and drinks to keep your teeth as bright as possible:

Dark-colored foods and beverages

Foods like beetroot, dark chocolate, blueberries, and dark-colored sauces (pasta sauce, soy sauce, curry sauce) can darken your teeth, undoing the work you went through to get them white. Teas, coffee, red wines, and colored juices or drinks can also cause discoloration.

Acidic foods and beverages

Food and drink with higher amounts of acid can further wear down your enamel that is already recovering from the bleaching, so it helps to avoid things like grapes, oranges, cranberries, and their fruit juices. Vinegar is also dangerous to your teeth at this point because it’s highly acidic. Essentially anything that can stain a white shirt should be avoided as much as possible.

If you smoke, you’ll want to stop as this dangerous habit also stains your teeth. This means any tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco.

If you go through the treatment to get your teeth white and sparkling, you don’t want to waste the time and effort you made to do it. Follow these steps and practice good dental hygiene to keep your teeth as bright as possible for as long as possible. 

If you have other questions about protecting your teeth after your professional whitening treatment, or you have other dental concerns, contact Dr. Klein and his team today. Call our office or request an appointment online.