We are enjoying our retirement here at Pheo Coffee, drinking excellent pour over coffee while trying to stay safe during this crazy. Here is a topic we have been thinking about for a long time: how can you drink a lot of coffee while keeping your teeth clean and white.
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I asked Dr. Peter, a pediatric dentist and the owner of VK Pediatric Dentistry in Arlington, VA to offer some advice on how coffee can affect your oral health. Dr. Peter specializes in kids dentistry and oral health and is an avid coffee drinking. He regularly drinks espresso and offers some tips on keeping your teeth white while enjoying cups of joe.

Common Reasons for Tooth Discoloration
Our teeth can become discolored for many reasons. Genetics, illness, injury, and age can all cause discoloration and are often out of our control. Intrinsic and extrinsic staining can also occur leading to tooth yellowing. Intrinsic staining is caused by medication, radiation, and even possibly dental treatment. Extrinsic staining, which has an association with coffee drinking, causes discoloration and yellowing on the surface of the tooth itself. These stains are caused by dietary and lifestyle choices (tobacco, iron supplementation, acidic beverages, and yes, coffee).

Why does it happen?
Although brushing, flossing, and 6-month visits to your dentist can help prevent discoloration, it can still happen even in the most oral hygiene responsible of coffee drinkers. The reason for this staining is because teeth aren’t entirely solid – they are composed of thousands of microtubules and tiny spaces exist in the surface. Compounds can stick to the enamel and stain the surface, eventually penetrating deeper.

How to Keep Your Teeth Pearly White

1. Regular Dental Visits
Although it sounds trite, regularly visiting your dentist (every 6 months) can help thoroughly clean and polish your teeth to keep the discoloration at bay and keep your teeth as strong and beautiful as possible. Dentists have specialized tools that allow them to remove even the stubborn stains (and stains you may not see on the back side of teeth).

2. Get Yourself an Electric Toothbrush
Although a manual toothbrush gets the job done, electric toothbrushes get the job done better. Electric toothbrushes oscillate, vibrate, and generally clean much more effectively than a manual brush. Multiple studies have shown the electric toothbrush has better benefits and is more effective at stain removal. You don’t need to get a top of the line brush to experience a difference, though we recommend using one with oscillation to help tackle even the most stubborn of stains. For some recommendations, check out Dr. Peter’s posts on toothbrushes and toothpaste.

3. Whitening Products
Whitening toothpaste is specifically formulated to remove surface stains on the outer part of the tooth, the enamel. Some contain hydrogen peroxide which actually whitens teeth, some contain a mild abrasive to help scrub those stubborn stains. Whitening strips can be extremely effective and deliver quick results for yellowing teeth. There is a wide range of whitening strips/kits. We’d recommend starting with a lower strength and doing multiple applications to try to reduce sensitivity. Although the sensitivity is usually temporary, it can be quite painful.

It started as a crazy idea: sell coffee at scale to create a sustainable healthcare fund. With thousands of coffee shops out there, the chances Pheo Coffee could achieve this ambitious goal were grim, but we gave it our best shot. After 2 years, we are calling it quits.
We are proud to say we have been able to fund 21 surgeries from coffee sale revenue, and create a debt-free, profitable business. We were lucky enough to get national press coverage through the Washington Post, iHeartRadio and others, and have many repeat & die-hard customers who have supported us along the way. We were fortunate enough that you chose us to be a part of countless birthday celebrations and graduation gifts.
To honor our incredible customers (and black Friday!) we are having a 25% off everything deal this week. We no longer offer subscriptions (and will provide pro-rated refunds for any active subscriptions in the coming week).
Promo code: BlackFriday
For parties interested in business acquisition, send email to info@pheocoffee.com
THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTED US!
Happy Holidays,
Dr. Larr

After working 12 hour shifts, night shifts, dealing with difficult patients, or doing CPR, there is nothing better than coming home to a lovely subscription box or fresh pair of scrubs sitting at your door, waiting to be opened and enjoyed. We complied a few items that we think would make excellent gifts for nurses.

Subscribe and get a freshly roasted coffee honoring a medical pioneer with a riveting medical history book each month. From Florence Nightingale to Hippocrates, this box will take you on a journey through the history of medicine. Upgrade to the mystery box and get a fun surprise every month ranging from free mugs  to copies of history medical papers. This makes an excellent gift for nurses that love books and coffee!

You wear scrubs every single day, why not splurge on some nice ones and enjoy how you look at work. Medelita offers premium scrubs for the modern health professionals with beautiful colors and cuts, this is guaranteed to make the nurse in your life smile. Great gift for nurses. 

The Therabox is a popular subscription box that focuses on you and your self care. They include a  "happiness activity" plus 6 - 8 self care wellness goodies. Check it out here.

The Causebox is a box of beauty products sourced from ethical, community-minded, eco-friendly, and mindful companies.

Florence Nightingale was the founder of modern nursing and an absolute gem from medicine's past. We made a delicious, dark roast coffee to honor her and her amazing achievements. This is a knock-your-socks-off thoughtful gift for the nurse in your life. Buy some today.

A lot has happened in the past few months and we would like to share it all and make sure you are up to date!

Dr. Larry and Pheo Coffee was in the Washington Post!
​A great article introducing you to our founder, with frank, honest details about how the business started. 

Pheo Coffee's origin story dates back to Dr Larry's time in med school, with one very special mentor, Dr Pawan Suri, who first introduced him to the idea of home roasted coffee. His alma mater recently shared this article for the VCU alumni magazine!

Explore the Space, Dr. Mark Shapiro's podcast on everything healthcare featured Dr Larry and Pheo Coffee recently. It was a great conversation about coffee culture, medicine, and more! Check it out here.

With the new year upon us, we thought we'd recommend some doctor gifts for the new year that have been very popular in 2018. These doctor gifts will amaze, wow, impress and more. 

This gift for doctors is sure to excite. It comes with a coffee that honor's medicine's pioneers, a coffee mug with the "caffeine deficiency" ICD10 code on it, and a popular medical book of your choice. This all comes beautifully packaged in a fun, bright yellow gift box. 

Gone are the days of squinting and hoping to see the tympanic membrane. This doctors gift will change their medical practice forever! now you can insert a camera directly into the ear canal, and see a nice large image of the inner ear. You can also record video and take pictures. 

Pheo Coffee is a medical themed coffee company that honors the pioneers in medicine and funds surgeries around the world. Pictured is X, one of our most popular coffees. It honors Wilhelm Rontgen, the physicist that discovered X rays. It is a delicious medium roast, breakfast blend. Perfect doctor gift, especially those in the radiology field!

This doctors gift is out of the future. A tiny, thin electrode that connects via Bluetooth to your iPhone to provide extremely accurate I lead EKG. This is great for evaluating patient's with palpitations on the fly, checking for atrial fibrillation or other arrhythmias. 

Another gem of a doctor gifts, this box is PERFECT for the doctor in your life who loves coffee but still drinks from the pods. This starter kit comes with medical themed Pheo Coffee ground perfectly for pour over, and all the tools needed to make a pour over coffee, arguably the simplest and most flavor extracting technique. 

These gift make exceptional doctor gifts and will be sure to be a hit in 2019.

At Pheo Coffee, we are developing​ premium coffee for healthcare professionals. Our design is something we'd like to call "vintage-modern, " where we try to use modern design concepts accented by vintage, apothecary labels. 

This theme transfers to medicine as well. We are introducing Ultrasound Rounds - various Pheo Coffee's with Butterfly Bedside Ultrasound images and videos! Gone are the days of listening to someone's chest and guessing what is inside. Now we can actually SEE what's inside!

Each week, we will go through a clinical case that will teach you about coffee and ultrasound. 

When looking for a gift this holiday season for the nurse in your life, look no further than Pheo Coffee! I mean, what could be better than a coffee honoring Florence Nightingale, the founder of nursing!

What could be better you ask!?

​How about the Butterfly coffee with a vintage, WAX SEALED (!!!) handwritten letter!!!!!

We actually write every letter by hand, and wax seal every letter by hand!!! How authentic can you get!?!? The name Butterfly is of course a nod to the butterfly needle, one of nursing's most useful tools for drawing blood!

So when it comes to gifts for nurses, or doctors, or medical professionals, we think this one takes the cake! You can buy butterfly here, and add on a vintage letter while you're at it!!!

A  lot has been happening this past month that we'd like to summarize. We have had a very busy and productive November, with lots of exciting developments.

We were featured in the Washingtonian in an article entitled 'Meet the Doctor Who's Roasting Coffee To Fund Surgeries in Developing Countries." We are really happy with how the article came out and really think they captured the soul of our mission.

Rosslyn, Virginia Business Improvement District has a series this holiday season that features a "company that cares" in the community. They chose Pheo Coffee as one of those companies. They described us nicely, saying "The charitable cause coupled with the beautiful apothecary-themed packaging make it an excellent gift for a doctor or nurse, or anyone interested in premium coffee with a cause."

We are really excited about one of are holiday gifts with a local orthodontics office, the Virginia Center for Orthodontics, who offers braces and Invisalign in a sleek, modern office for the greater Arlington, VA area. They really loved our dental themed coffee, and our social mission to fund surgeries (especially this tooth extraction!), that they purchased a large order for their office, colleagues and friends. 

We had our first in person event at a holiday party in Washington DC! There were over 200 people there, and we passed out dozens of Pheo Coffee samples. People LOVED the coffee and we almost sold out of our Norepi and Butterfly!

We have officially launched subscriptions. Now you can subscribe to monthly, 3-month or 6-month intervals to get fresh coffee delivered to your door every month and create a sustained healthcare fund for those in need.

Get free pour-over tools if you purchase a 6-month subscription.

With the holiday season coming up, gift subscriptions offers yet another excellent option for getting something for the doctor, nurse or health professional in your life. 

Looking for a great gift for a doctor or nurse? Or just for a coffee lover in your life? We work hard to create beautiful, premium coffee and gifts. With intricate packaging and freshly roasted coffee, I guarantee this gift will blow people's minds. We  were featured on Awesomestuff365, Buzzfeed, and Bored Panda recently!

"Pheo Coffee provides high end medical themed coffee and gifts that make awesome gifts for doctors, nurses or health professionals.  With Coffee honoring medical discoveries, caffeine deficiency diagnosis code mugs, and "prescription" T-shirts, it is a great place to shop for doctor and nurse gifts."

These "prescription" T-shirts come in a jumbo prescription vial. They make a hilarious gift for a doctor or nurse. Here is a quote from one of our customers who recently gifted this shirt: