Cold brew coffee has become popular with coffee drinkers who want a smoother, less acidic cup. Plenty of coffee drinkers who switch to cold brew also want to know if it's actually better for their teeth than hot coffee. Temperature is one part of the equation, and how you brew your coffee can affect your dental health in a few ways.
Coffee temperature has a bigger effect on tooth stains. The heat as you brew and drink it will change how the compounds in your coffee affect your enamel. Cold brew drinkers want to know if their choice helps their teeth stay whiter, and the answer depends on how coffee actually stains teeth and why some types are rougher on enamel than others.
Here's how your coffee brew could affect your smile!
Why Coffee Stains Your Teeth
Coffee stains your teeth, and this depends on two compounds that are present in the beans. The first culprit is tannins. Tannins are plant-based compounds, and they're responsible for giving coffee that slightly bitter taste and recognizable dark brown color. The second issue is chromogens. Chromogens are pigment molecules, and they stick well to almost any surface that they touch (and yes, that includes your tooth enamel).
As you drink coffee, the pigments in it wind up on your tooth enamel. A quick rinse with water won't wash them away either. The pigments actually attach themselves to the enamel and stay put. The reason that this happens connects to how tooth enamel is built - it looks smooth but is full of microscopic pores. Your enamel is similar to a sponge with thousands of small holes throughout it. Those little openings are just right for trapping color molecules, and once they settle in there, they can be hard to remove.
Coffee works on each person differently, though, and not everyone deals with the same amount of staining on their teeth. Some people drink coffee every day, and they still manage to keep their smile pretty white. What makes the difference for most people is how porous their enamel happens to be. When your enamel has lots of small pits and grooves in it, the tannins and chromogens have a lot more places where they can get in and stay put.
Your enamel's texture isn't the same for everyone - genetics play a part here, and the wear and tear that your teeth go through over the years matters too. As you get older, or if you eat and drink acidic foods and beverages pretty regularly, your enamel gets rougher and rougher. A rougher surface gives staining compounds more little areas to latch onto and hang on.
The whole process takes place at the molecular level and actually explains quite a bit about how stains form on your teeth. Coffee molecules create bonds with your enamel, and these bonds get stronger the longer they're in contact with the surface - that's why coffee stains don't show up overnight after one cup. Instead, they build up little by little over weeks and months.
Heat Opens the Pores in Your Teeth
Your tooth enamel looks smooth and firm from the outside. But the entire surface is riddled with microscopic pores. Temperature has a big effect on these little openings, and they'll expand or contract based on whether you're drinking something hot or cold.
Hot beverages make these pores open up for a while. Once they do, you wind up with many more entry points for the staining compounds in coffee to work their way into your enamel. It works just like any other material that expands once it gets heated up.
Dentists have done plenty of research on this, and what they've found out is that hot drinks leave your teeth vulnerable to stains as you're drinking them and for a short window afterward. The heat alone won't do any permanent damage to your enamel. What it does is open it up so stains can sink in deeper and bond tighter. Coffee drinkers who go for hot cups usually wind up with darker teeth as the years go by, and temperature has plenty to do with making that happen.
Cold brew is different because of what the temperature does to your enamel. Since you drink it cold or at room temperature, your enamel doesn't go through the same expansion and contraction that happens with hot coffee. Those little pores in your teeth stay closed off, and that means staining compounds have a much harder time working their way in and taking hold.
Temperature is one factor that separates hot coffee from cold brew, and the difference between them is actually large. Hot coffee is usually served between 150 degrees F and 175 degrees F. Cold brew sits at around 40 degrees F when it comes straight from the fridge, and it drops even more if you add ice into the mix.
This temperature difference actually has a big effect on the way that your enamel reacts to the coffee. When the temperature is lower, your enamel doesn't expand as much, and that means there aren't as many openings for stains to work their way into the surface. Cold brew has a natural edge here just because you're always drinking it cold. Your enamel stays at its normal size the whole time you're drinking it, so it skips that vulnerable window where the surface opens up and it's more likely to absorb color and get stained.
Cold brew can still cause some staining over time, so I don't want to give you the impression that it's a perfect answer for keeping your teeth white. The cooler temperature does help quite a bit, though, when you compare it to drinking hot coffee multiple times a day.
Why Cold Brew Has Much Lower Acidity
Cold brew contains about 30% to 40% less acid than hot coffee does and helps you out if you drink a few cups throughout the day. The lower acidity level is directly related to how each one is brewed, and the two methods extract different compounds from the coffee beans.
Cold water pulls out a lot less acid from your coffee beans during the brew process. Hot water is a different story - it pulls a lot more acids into your cup because the heat speeds up the whole extraction process between the water and your ground coffee. Cold brew actually sits in cold water for 12 to 24 hours (compared to just a few minutes with traditional hot brewing) and gives you a much smoother and gentler drink.
Coffee contains a fair amount of acid, and the acid level does matter for your teeth. The acids in coffee will temporarily soften your tooth enamel, and once your enamel gets softer, it's much easier for the pigments to attach to the surface and create stains. Softer enamel also wears down faster over time, and it sure isn't great if you want to have your teeth in decent shape.
Every time you drink hot coffee, it softens up your enamel a little bit. Your enamel will eventually harden back up on its own after a little while, and that's helpful. The issue is that if you drink multiple cups throughout the day, your enamel never actually gets enough time to fully recover and harden between each cup. Cold brew is easier on your enamel because it has fewer of these softening acids in it from the start, so it does less damage with every cup.
The brew temperature is what makes the main difference here. The coffee beans themselves don't change at all - nothing gets added to them or pulled out of them during the brew. Cold water just isn't strong enough to pull out as much harsh, acidic material from the grounds during that long steep time - it's a big part of the reason that cold brew tastes way smoother and feels much gentler on your stomach.
How You Sip Affects Your Teeth
The type of coffee you drink matters for staining, and that's a factor you should think about. The way you have your morning cup each day (how fast and what you drink it with) can all change how much your teeth actually get stained.
Contact time plays a much bigger role in this. Nursing a hot coffee for over 1 or 2 hours exposes your teeth to those staining compounds for a long stretch of time. Every sip reintroduces the acids and pigments to your enamel. Someone who downs their cold brew in 15 minutes cuts that exposure time dramatically. The staining difference between these two habits can be large.
Cold brew is more concentrated than hot coffee, and that's why most servings are smaller. The stronger flavor means you're going to drink less of it in total, and this actually matters for staining. An 8-ounce cold brew that you finish in just a few minutes gives your teeth way less exposure to staining compounds than a 16-ounce hot coffee that you sip on all morning long.
Your saliva works to protect your teeth in between each sip that you take, rinsing away the acids and helping to bring your mouth's pH level back to where it should be. When you take another sip before this process has a chance to finish, you're stopping the natural defense your body is trying to give you. Your saliva just doesn't get the time it needs to finish the job right.
Your morning coffee habit adds up. Refilling your mug multiple times before lunch exposes your teeth to acid for hours at a time. That time builds up. For dental health, how long you spend drinking your coffee actually matters more than the temperature of it. Cold brew is less acidic than hot coffee. But sipping on the same cup from 9 AM until noon still gives your teeth a pretty rough time.
These techniques work well for cold brew drinkers and hot coffee enthusiasts, so you'll get solid results regardless of which type you like. The whole point is to cut down on how long the coffee sits on your teeth and to give your enamel enough time to recover between cups.
Which Coffee Stains Your Teeth Less
Cold brew is going to stain your teeth a little less compared to hot coffee. The main reason relates to the levels of acid; cold brew has less acid in it, so the lower acidity helps to protect your enamel from becoming too porous. When your enamel can stay stronger and less porous, those dark pigments in coffee have a harder time settling deep into the surface of your teeth.
Temperature matters too, just not quite as much. Hot drinks open up those small microscopic pores in your enamel a little more than cold liquids will. I should probably level with you upfront, though. Cold brew and hot coffee will stain your teeth in the same way because both have dark pigments, and those pigments love to cling to your enamel. Cold brew does usually cause slightly less staining over time. But the difference is minimal at best, so it's not going to make your teeth white on its own - you'll still need to practice regular dental care habits if you want to avoid discoloration.
Your regular habits are going to have a much bigger effect on the staining than the temperature of your coffee ever will. Brushing at least twice a day and rinsing your mouth out after you finish your coffee prevents far more stains than just switching to cold brew would. Even dedicated cold brew drinkers can wind up with heavily stained teeth when their oral hygiene habits aren't what they should be.
Plenty of coffee drinkers believe that cold brew won't stain their teeth at all. It's not quite that easy. Any type of coffee can stain your teeth because the beans themselves have tannins and chromogens (these are the compounds that are responsible for the staining). The brewing process that you choose and the final acidity level will affect how fast these compounds will attach to your enamel. Regardless of which brewing process you use, those staining compounds are going to be in your cup each time.
Cold brew is usually a little easier on your enamel, and it's nice if you already like it over hot coffee anyway. Just remember that it won't protect your smile all on its own without some effort from you. How well you take care of your teeth after each cup will make the biggest difference in keeping them bright and healthy.
Keep It All Natural
Cold brew does have a couple of small upsides for your teeth, mostly because it's colder and has a bit less acid than normal hot coffee. But it's not going to leave your smile bright white if you're still drinking multiple cups every day. Coffee stains the teeth regardless of temperature, and just switching from hot to cold won't stop that by itself. You'd need to make some other changes to your day-to-day habits if you want to protect your smile.
The type of coffee that you pick doesn't matter as much as what you do around the time that you drink it. Your regular habits with coffee are going to have a much bigger effect on stains than the temperature ever will. A straw moves the coffee away from your front teeth, and it helps quite a bit. A quick water rinse right after you finish your cup will wash off most of the residue before it gets a chance to settle on your enamel. The usual practices like brushing and flossing will do a lot more to keep your teeth white than worrying about hot versus iced coffee ever could.
Small adjustments like these let you make better choices without giving up what you actually like. Coffee can stay the way you like it - just add a couple of quick habits to protect your teeth. You don't need to stress over the temperature. But a few basic changes really will.
We started Bella All Natural because wellness shouldn't be hard to find. You might know what's right for you. But when it's a pain to follow through on it, it just doesn't happen. We make natural products that bridge the difference between wanting to feel better and actually making it part of your day-to-day life. Everything that we make (detox kits, weight loss formulas and natural beauty products) works to support your body from the inside out.
