No one wants yellow teeth!

What can you do to make sure you maintain your pearly white as long as you can. Certain foods and beverages can stain your teeth, and ultimately lead to discoloration. Coffee, tea, soda, dark juices, popsicles, and even soy sauce can stain your teeth. Sugary, acidic, or starchy foods can promote the growth of bacteria and the demineralization process. Even foods like pickles, cranberries, tomato products, and alcohol can also cause demineralization and staining.

Foods to Avoid:

1. Lemon Juice: Although it is a hot trend to drink hot lemon drinks, citrus fruits like lemon and lime are very acidic and can erode teeth enamel. This reveals yellow tissue (dentin) below the surface, hence the appearance of yellow teeth.
2. Red Wine: It’s the tannins in red wine that cause staining. In addition to causing that all too-familiar dry-mouth texture of wine, they also bind to the teeth, encouraging the pigment to latch on.
3. Beet Root: This veggie is considered great for you but the pearly whites cannot be maintain if you have too much of this. In the same way beetroot stains your hands and chopping board, it can affect the whiteness of teeth, as it’s deeply coloured.
4. Balsamic Vinegar: It might be a pre-meal staple along with bread and oil, but due to the sticky nature of balsamic vinegar, it can latch onto teeth, which can lead to staining.
5. Tea: Even a brew has been blacklisted. Tea causes teeth to stain worse than coffee, and it’s due to tannins again, which latch on to teeth. What’s more, the darker the colour of your tea, the greater the chance of staining. So that's bad news for black tea lovers, then.
6. Curry: Your favourite Friday night takeaway might taste great, but the tasty yellow spices in curries can be harsh on teeth thanks to their strong pigmentation. A curry should be a rare treat – your teeth will thank you.
7. Cherries: All fruit juice can cause discolouration, but richly pigmented fruits like cherries or berries are the worst culprits. In addition, fruit juice is packed with sugar, which can boost bacteria in the mouth, leading to more dental damage and discolouration.
8. Tomato sauce: Tomatoes are highly acidic and brightly coloured, so tomato sauce and ketchup can cause staining and enamel erosion.
9. Coffee: Coffee might be part of your daily routine, but you can kiss goodbye to the idea of pearly whites if you can't give this habit up. The enamel of your teeth has tiny pits and ridges that grips onto what we eat, especially if they are darker in colour – like coffee. This can cause permanent yellow staining on your teeth. Plus, coffee is also very acidic, and acidic foods can be more harmful to your oral health.
10. Soya Sauce: It goes great with sushi, sure, but it's not so top for your teeth. It is one of the worst offenders for staining teeth, because the dark colouring of soy can linger long after your meal is over.