I have met people who can drink a glass of red wine and still have mysteriously white teeth. With just one sip of wine, I seem to develop red fangs, on the otherhand.
Since I’m not willing to give up my love for red wine but am concerned it’s wrecking havoc on my teeth, I’ve developed a simple trick that leaves me stain-free.
My secret? I drink my red wine out of a straw.
I work hard to keep my pearly whites and I am certainly not going to let a glass of wine fight with my efforts, and win.
When I began drinking red wine out of a straw, I did so covertly, the way one eats a sleeve of chocolate chip cookies. However, as I grew more confident in my choice, I began to own it. I think I may have even converted several of my friends.
If you were me five years ago, you are probably wondering why the heck I would take something as lovely as wine drinking and debase it with a straw.
Well, there is the obvious one. I grew tired of going to the bathroom only to discover that I had a purple mouth and purple teeth that I was flashing to strangers at a cocktail party.
There is a whole industry built up around this scenario. In fact, you can buy wine wipes to help your teeth to retain their particular shade of white (or off-white), but it does require some finesse to make sure that no one sees that you are wiping your teeth.
Red wine doesn’t lead to just a temporary staining, either. When consumed regularly (ahem!), it can contribute to full-time discoloration. Red wine is very acidic, with lots of tannins and chromogens, which are compounds with strong pigments that stick to enamel.
While we’re getting all pro-teeth, this isn’t the only culprit of darkening enamel. Age is one, according to Sally Cram, DDS.2 “Like a piece of pottery that gets fine lines, the stain gets into the little cracks and crevices,” she said.
Plus, there is tea, which has been shown to be even worse than coffee at causing stains. Coffee is not much better, in case you are smugly mid-cup.
Think of it this way: food and drink that would stain your clothes would do the same thing to your teeth. This would exercise a veto against berries, soft drinks, artificial dyes and more. If we want pearly whites, looks like we have to subsist on a diet of white rice and egg whites.
Or we can be more careful of what we put in our mouths and how we put it in our mouths. We can also safely and effectively brighten and straighten our teeth in our own homes using tried-and-true companies like SmileDirectClub.
SmileDirectClub makes it simpler and more affordable to get a straighter, brighter smile you can feel confident in. They also include three months of whitening gel to make your pearly whites sparkle, even after you’ve been sipping some red wine.
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Since I don’t foresee red wine and me having a breakup anytime soon, I will sip through my chic clear straw and walk away with a smile that I am proud to showcase. Turns out that there are straws specifically meant for this purpose.
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