Is My Coffee Habit Harming My Teeth?
Melbourne is known for its cultural diversity, excellent dining options and amazing street art. It's also known for being the coffee capital of the world and as we come out of stage 4 restrictions many of us will no doubt find ourselves sipping away at our local favourite coffee shop. But could this seemingly harmless habit be ruining our smile? Unfortunately, yes.
Whilst coffee itself is not directly harmful to our teeth, the specialty drinks and snacks that often go with it, can be.
The ‘problem’ with coffee
Coffee itself will not cause any actual harm to our teeth. In fact in 2011, researchers reported findings that coffee drinking is associated with a lower risk of depression among women, a lower risk of lethal prostate cancer among men, and a lower risk of stroke among men and women.
The down side is it can stain your teeth and a frequent espresso drinker may find that their teeth become quite badly discoloured over time. If this is the case with you we can help get your smile back to a dazzling white by having a teeth whitening treatment in Balwyn. If the staining is too heavy however, you may need to consider having porcelain dental veneers fitted instead.
For teeth whitening near Balwyn, Kew, Camberwell, Hawthorn, Surrey Hills, Mont Albert & Deepdene, please call Tower Dental today!
The real issue with coffee is that few of us drink a non sugar version, and indeed, many of the ‘specialty coffees’ offered in these premises are likely to contain very high quantities of sugar. To take just one example, a ‘Mocha Latte’ in one of the well known coffee chain stores, contains 14 teaspoons of sugar, and that isn’t the worst offender! As we add creams and syrups to our drinks, the amount of quantity we consume increases. If we also add a blueberry muffin from the same store, we add another 10 teaspoons of sugar. In total then, one of these coffees and a muffin will give us 24 teaspoons of sugar, an incredible amount. To put it into perspective, a can of coca cola contains around 9 teaspoons, so our coffee habit there is the equivalent in sugar of drinking just under 3 cans of cola.
If this were an occasional treat, we could perhaps let this go as long as we generally look after our teeth well. As we know though, many people do this almost every day, or at least a few times each week and this habit is likely to lead to a great deal of tooth decay and gum disease.
Whilst our Balwyn dental team can help to restore teeth damaged in this way, it is better to be aware of the damage that our coffee habit can cause and make choices that help to prevent these problems from occurring in the first place.
If you’re worried that your teeth are stained due to excessive coffee drinking or maybe you just need a check up, please call Tower Dental in Balwyn on (03) 9817 7144 today!