Coffee is, without a doubt, the most popular drug in the world. In the US alone, a total of 700M cups are consumed in a single day.
We at Floss Bar love coffee. Yes, it stains your teeth. But if it gives your morning energy and is a great warm beverage to share with your colleagues. If you like it, we will not stop you. We want you to love life and do the things that enable a productive lifestyle.
We do, however, care about coffee breath. Did you know coffee breath is not just the smell of coffee…it’s the smell of the bacteria eating the sugars in your mouth…laced with coffee. If the smell of coffee and coffee breath were exact…would you actually choose the coffee flavored ice cream at Baskin Robins? We wouldn’t.
So how does your lovely coffee, a sterile beverage we would hope, become a special platform for bacteria? It’s because the chemicals in coffee slow down saliva production. The saliva in your mouth usually sloshes the bacteria around, disrupting it. But with coffee, the lack of saliva creates a perfectly undisturbed environment for the 500 species of bacteria which already exist in the mouth to multiply as rapidly as possible.
Not a great picture.
To offset the effects of coffee, just get your regular dental care and, if possible, up your game on what you normally do – eat more fruit which can help clean off stains in the interim, drink water to clear your palate, and brush after.
Bacteria grow exponentially...so the more bacteria you start with, the more you end up with, and the smellier you become. It’s that simple.