What can I do about my stained teeth?
Stained teeth can be embarrassing, making people feel too awkward to smile or even talk to others. In this article, we’ll tell you about what causes teeth staining and what you can do about it.
What causes stained teeth?
Stained teeth are most often acquired by drinking coffee, tea, wine, and smoking. If a food or drink stains your clothing its more than likely it can stain your teeth.
However, food and drink isn’t always the culprit. Sometimes stains are caused by conditions we have little control over like aging and damaged enamel. Also, certain medications can stain your teeth from the inside out when the teeth are forming. So can underlying medical or dental conditions.
What can I do about it?
If you have stained teeth, take heart. Lots of people begin to address minimal staining at home and get excellent results using dentist prescribed home bleaching or regularly brushing with fluoride toothpastes.
How your dentist can help.
Unfortunately, self-medicating to remove severe stains is not successful with
the aid of do-it-yourself methods, especially if staining is caused by
medications or medical conditions. The good news is that modern dentistry can
offer a wide variety of options to bring out the best in your teeth regardless
of the cause.
Your dentist will first recommend a thorough tooth cleaning if you haven’t had
one recently. Depending on the severity of stains this may involve several
visits. When cleaning alone isn’t enough to restore your teeth to their former
glory your dentist can recommend a treatment plan to give you back your sparkly
whites (even if they weren’t exactly Hollywood-white in the first place.)
Correcting stained teeth at the dentist’s office may be as simple as taking two
visits – preliminary tooth shades, and
impressions to fabricate the Dentist prescribed custom made bleach trays. Then
coming back to fit the trays and having Dr Jest demonstrate the simple
procedure for their use over seven to ten nights. We do also offer a
complimentary visit to make sure you are happy with the shade change at the end
of that time.
Dr Jest only recommends home whitening treatment using these trays as it is way more successful than in surgery bleaching using a light to activate the bleaching gel. The reason for this is that the gel has to penetrate into the enamel and dentine to achieve it’s effect and this can only happen properly if it is allowed to sit on the tooth for a prolonged time. Gels in bleach trays are active for about six hours which is more than enough to achieve this goal.
Another option is the application of dental veneers where a thin layer of
dental material is custom molded over your real teeth. Veneers are a good
choice for those who never had naturally white teeth or when stains are caused
by medications or dental conditions. Veneers can even correct any imperfections
in your teeth like gaps or chips in addition to covering up stains.
Still frowning over your stained teeth?
Knowing which treatment option best corrects your teeth begins with making an
appointment with your dentist. Call us today so can know what options are
currently available to get you smiling again.
