You may have heard about the sipping through the straw when drinking soda, coffee, and hot or cold drinks in order to protect your teeth. But is there any truth to this advice? There are myths out there that can easily be debunked, but this question is more complicated.
True, sipping through the straw may protect your teeth from stains when you drink soda or tea. However, if you can taste the beverage, then there’s a good chance that your teeth have already been sold.
Limiting the Damage to Your Teeth
In order to be more effective, therefore, the advice should be more detailed. It’s not only that you have to sip sodas, coffee or sugary drinks through a straw, but also in the manner in how you do it. Ordinarily, we put the tip of the straw in between our lips to sip, which defeats the purpose of sipping through the straw in the first place considering that the sugary liquid will still settle in your mouth before you swallow it. The best way to sip is to put the straw further in your mouth, between your tongue and your teeth and swallow the liquid immediately.
If you think you can’t enjoy your hot coffee with a straw (who does?), then you can probably make some compromise as long as you don’t forget to drink water to wash away the stain. Ideally, you take turns between sipping the hot coffee and drinking the water. Lastly, don’t brush your teeth immediately afterward because it can cause a chemical reaction that will damage the enamel. Wait at least half an hour later.
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