When it comes to your teeth, or more specifically their color, not all coffees are made the same. While coffee has long been known to bring a tinge of brown to those otherwise pearly whites—with dentists even weighing in on when you should brush your teeth vis a vis drinking your daily coffee—different types of brews have different levels of effect. And I’ve got bad news for the Scandinavian-style light roast filter drinkers, darker roasts and cold brew are easier on the chompers.
As reported by Inverse, the distinction comes down to levels of acidity and how it affects the enamel on teeth. While a generally rigid substance, enamel is porous, and acidic substances can break it down. Food or drink with a pH of 5.5 or lower can negatively affect your enamel. (For those who don’t remember Science class, the pH scale goes from 0 to 14, with 7 being completely neutral; water is a 7. The lower the number, the more acidic, and the higher the number, the more basic.)
Coffee’s pH level, per the article, is anywhere between 4.9 and 6.2. Because the roasting process breaks down acids in the coffee bean over time, lighter-roasted coffee possesses more acids than dark-roasted coffee.
Temperature is also a factor. A 2018 paper found that the same coffee had higher acid levels when hot-brewed as it did when it was cold-brewed. Thus, it stands to reason, that a cold-brewed dark roast would have a higher overall pH and thus be less harmful to your teeth.
But, if you have no plans of switching to darker roasts or colder brews, there are options to mitigate the effects. One suggestion is to mix your coffee with milk, which has a pH between 6.7 and 6.9, or water. While adding these won’t change the pH of the coffee itself, it will change the overall pH of the drink, making the acids in the coffee less potent overall. Another suggestion is to drink your coffee faster. Drinking coffee changes the pH of the saliva in your mouth, which is normally around 6.7. So if you slug your coffee down quicker, it’s less overall time that your teeth are subjected to a more acidic environment.
Ultimately, it comes down to what you value more in life. Do you want white teeth or would you rather get to experience joy on a daily basis? On a completely unrelated note, be on the lookout for my removable teeth covers—kind of like a blend between whitening strips and mouth guard but with a zippy Millennial tech-disruptive spirit, so you know it’s gonna cost a lot—that will allow you to have your cake coffee and eat drink it too.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
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Zac Cadwalader
May 15, 2024
