Another good reason to drink tea or, Stained Teeth

"Sounds to me like another excuse for bad teeth, ala Austin Powers," he said with an evil grin.

I guess this is possibly because tea has fluoride and tea stains your teeth.... and that teeth naturally yellow on their own and whitening agents are detrimental to your tooth enamel.

Right. You're supposed to get enough fluoride to make your teeth strong but not so much that it weakens your skeleton. Any questions?

/Lew

I understand that fluoride in your mouth re-ionizes enamel but I thought the stuff you actually consume was only effective in strengthening teeth when the teeth are being built.. ie, when you're a young child.

It's not really good to consume it. This is why parents with toddlers are told *NOT* to use fluoridated toothpaste until the child is old enough to spit it out rather than swallow it.

Incidentally, prolonged daily ingestion of excessive fluoride will result (to some degree) in dental fluorosis, or "teeth mottling" leaving varying degrees of brownish discoloration and pitting of the teeth.

I use to get a lot of grief from my dental hygienists and dentist about my tea stains. Btw, they think these bleaching products are very unsound with the, "it does no harm" claims.

I gave both of them a copy of Upton's catalog. Now both are converted to tea drinkers and nothing is said about my stains.

After a couple years of drinking tea, they recommend. Brush twice a day using a fluoride toothpaste with baking soda and floss twice a day with a baking soda floss.

stains. Btw, they think these

drinkers and nothing is said

Yes! A few more converted! heh.

I'm actually going to send some loose leaf pu'er back to my dental hygienist after I return to China as well. She was very curious to see what in the devil had done such a good job at staining my 'beautiful smile' as she put it. She's such a sweet lady; she even gave me some of the stuff they use to polish teeth with. heh.

Mydnight

-------------------- thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

stains. Btw, they think these

drinkers and nothing is said

Anybody else think it odd that dentists & hygienists warn us about using abrasives on our teeth, but then they use a "polish" on a tool that rotates much, much faster than any non-professional electric toothbrush?

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might start to think that they're wearing down our teeth on purpose just to stay in business.

Getting your teeth cleaned by a hygienist once or twice a year probably doesn't hurt anything. The stuff that she gave me, she said just brush lightly with it once or twice a month; I'm not worried. Most toothpastes have some slightly abrasive reactants in them and it's the same reason why dentists recommend replacing your toothbrush every few months...the bristles wear down and it becomes not abrasive enough. If you want no abrasion, bruth your teeth with you thumb like the kid in boyscout camp that forgot his toothbrush. heh.

Now, using those whitening strips all the time and using the super whitening toothpastes; I would worry about that more.

Mydnight

-------------------- thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

I can't use 'em. They make my teeth hurt and they irritate my gums.

I've just grown accustomed to having "not quite perfectly white" teeth.

I've never tried. Just the ingredients sorta spook me in those whitening strips.

Mydnight

-------------------- thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

I tried the whitening strips at the suggestion of my hygienist. Maybe I've just got a big mouth (don't go there!), but the strips only cover the front teeth. So when I smiled, the teeth behind what the strip covered were still yellowed from tea.

...

WHOO-HOO! Way to go!

As I'm just about out of my current toothpaste, I cruised the shelves at Wal-Mart yesterday. All except Colgate's anti-cavity, contained silica which my dentist warned was like brushing with sand or glass. There were some empty rows in the shelves so, hopefully, there are more less abrasive toothpastes available. The rest were tartar-control, super-cleaning, or whitening.

Err...my dentist told me years ago to use only soft brushes and to replace every three months because the bristles wear down and become *more* abrasive; an older, worn brush has you brushing with the harder shaft instead of a softer tip. I s'pose this might depend on the design of the brush and I don't recall what they were handing out.