Why does brushing your teeth not remove tea stains?

I’ve always managed to get tea stains out of my teacups just by scrubbing them. No bleach or heavy cleaners needed, just normal soap and water. Why is it brushing your teeth does not do the same thing for your teeth? Is tooth enamel a rougher, more porous surface, therefore making it more difficult to get the stain out? What’s up?

you likely don’t, nor should you scrub your teeth as hard as your dishes.

the staining may be on the tartar which brushing doesn’t remove.

I shelled out for some hard-core dental scrub cleaner and a little whizzy polishing gadget on amazon a while back and it still doesn’t completely deal with the tea/coffee/red wine/nicotine staining. Are there any dentists here? Answers please!

Dentist here. Enamel is hard but stains fairly easily. Any acidic foods or acidic bacterial waste products in the plaque can dissolve a microscopic layer of the enamel. The minerals in the saliva and toothpaste remineralize the tooth. If there is stain on the tooth at the time it gets incorporated into the enamel.

As for the Amazon gadget be careful with them. Many(not all) use a slightly acidic gel to coat the tooth and a very abrasive paste to then scrub it. It removes more stain but also enamel. Usually I would recommend an OTC bleaching product such as white strips. They do a pretty fair job on these stains. Their biggest drawback with whitening products is some people have sensitivity with them.

I did not know the exact method by which tooth enamel stains and that is a cool thing to know. Yep, my teacups definitely do not remineralize. That would explain a lot.

Is the sensitivity permanent or does it go away if you stop using the product?

(I often get sensitivity after cleaning by my dentist but that goes away.)

Goes away. Can speed it up by using a anti sensitivity toothpaste or getting a product such as gel-kam from the pharmacy.

Y’know, I’m going to give an off-topic caution - “whitening” toothpastes are generally not the same thing as toothpastes with “bleach” or peroxide. Bleaching toothpastes and whitening gels usually contain urea peroxide or some other peroxide. Most toothpastes branded as “whitening” just contain more abrasive materials, though some contain brighteners or stain removers.