How to keep teeth white?

Free Macro White Teeth With Dental Floss and Red Lipstick Creative Com
© Pink Sherbet Photography (Flickr)
First Steps
Many people neglect to brush their teeth at least twice a day. This leads to stains and plaque building up on the teeth, resulting in grey or yellow discoloured teeth.

Tips
For optimum dental care, you should brush after every meal.
It is also important to floss at least once a day.
Don’t forget to visit your dentist regularly not only to get your teeth checked, but also to receive professional cleaning.

This will help to remove stains on teeth better than brushing at home. Food and Drink
A major cause of stained teeth is the consumption of the wrong kinds of food and drink. Any food or drink that can stain a white T-shirt can discolour your teeth.

Fruits and vegetables
Beets, blueberries and blackberries are just some of the things that can have an adverse effect on the whiteness of your teeth, as will red wine, grape and cranberry juice.

Beverages
Tea and coffee can also leave long lasting stains while sodas and fruit juices erode the enamel exposing the underlying, yellow layer of dentin.

Author’s advice

You don’t need to give them up altogether, however, but remember to rinse your mouth and brush your teeth after having any of these items. Just as some types of food are bad, others such as apples, pears, celery and carrots have a cleaning effect on the teeth, leading to a whiter shine.

Avoid smoking

Besides being bad for your health, smoking is one of the leading causes of discoloured teeth. As tobacco penetrates the tooth enamel, the stains can be very hard to remove and become more entrenched as time goes on.
Whitening Treatments
Dental treatment
With a plethora of offerings, tooth-whitening treatments are a popular way of restoring coloured teeth to their former glory.

Products
These products, which can consist of toothpaste, gels and strips, use mild bleach to remove stains. With some tooth-whitening kits, you use a brush to apply the bleach onto the teeth while others have a strip that moulds itself to the teeth for a more thorough application of the gel. For tougher stains, however, you should avail yourself of a dentist’s services.