All your beauty and charm can fade away if your teeth are stained and have patches of different colors.
Our teeth’ natural color varies from white to pale yellow, yellow teeth are somewhat acceptable, but teeth with dark stains look awful.
If you are someone with stains on your teeth and want to get rid of them, but you don’t know how to do it and what treatment options are, then I am here to help you.
Here we will discuss how to eliminate teeth discoloration and its causes.
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How To Fix Teeth Discoloration? – Ultimate Guide
Discolored teeth can suppress your confidence, and instead of smiling and giggling, you may start to hide your smile behind the mask.
For smiling confidentiality, you want to get rid of these stains, but the question is, how can you get rid of them?
Depending on the type of stains, you may require professional treatment; sometimes, at-home treatment can be sufficient.
Types Of Stains
Intrinsic Stains
As the name indicates, this type of discoloration includes the internal architecture of the teeth.
Mostly in this type of discoloration, dentine is involved. Dentine can turn black or yellow because of external trauma, injury, cavities, certain medication, and the use of too much fluoride.
These stains are very hard to remove and can’t be drawn with the help of over-the-counter Whitening kits; professional assistance is required in such cases.
Extrinsic Teeth Stains
Extrinsic teeth discoloration doesn’t involve dentine or pulp; only the nonliving layer of teeth, also known as enamel, is involved.
It is mostly because of bad habits and an unhealthy diet. Your lifestyle is one of the main leading causes of this type of stain. The most common causes of extrinsic stains are tobacco consumption, smoking, and excessive intake of wine, coffee, and cola.
They appear on the outside teeth, and their color varies, mostly yellowish to orange. This can be treated to some extent with the help of over-the-counter drugs.
In rare cases, extrinsic stains can be brown; if you have brown stains and want a detailed guide for their treatment, you should look at How to Get Rid of Brown Stains on Teeth? Treatment and Prevention
Age-Related Teeth Stains
Age-related teeth stains can be intrinsic or extrinsic, or a combination. In it, both enamel and dentine are involved
You can develop internal stains because of medications, illnesses, or injuries; otherwise, your food choices will stain the enamel. With time enamel is worn out, and the yellow discolored dentine becomes more prominent.
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What Causes Staining On Teeth?
Tooth discoloration is multifactorial, and both intrinsic and extrinsic causes vary greatly, but some of the most common causes of stained teeth are
- bad dietary habits such as excessive intake of coffee, tea, multi-colored fizzy drinks, red wine, and different fruits such as Blackberries and blueberries
- Another major cause of stained teeth is smoking and chewing tobacco. It can leave permanent brown stains on the enamel.
- Sometimes bad dietary habits don’t contribute as much to teeth staining as bad oral hygiene.
- Brushing teeth twice a day and flossing regularly help to prevent plaque from building up. If these steps are removed from the oral care routine or are not performed accurately, your teeth will soon be discolored.
- The most common cause of internal stains are factors such as medications, chemotherapy, and giving tetracycline to children. Sometimes, it can be genetic as well.
Treatment Plan For Stained Teeth
Treating teeth discoloration and stained teeth first involve Identifying the root cause. After identification of the cause and type of stain, different medical treatments are used depending on the etiology.
Diet and Habits
The treatment of extrinsic staining caused by bad dietary habits, such as using tobacco and drinking coffee, can be treated with the help of dental prophylaxis and modifications in nutritional habits. Your dentist may tell you to avoid or lessen the intake of specific foods.
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Toothbrushing
According to the American Dental Association guidelines, brushing your teeth twice a day with the help of toothpaste or any dentifrice, which the American Dental Association approves, will help prevent external staining.
Toothpaste and different denitrifiers approved by American Dental Association contain 40 to 50% abrasive and other therapeutic agents such as anti-tartar agents, which help prevent plaque build-up and treat gingivitis. Make sure you are using Toothpaste, approved by the American Dental Association.
Professional Tooth Cleaning
Sometimes extrinsic stains, with time, become stubborn and can’t be removed with the help of over-the-counter medication. Different professional treatments, such as ultrasonic cleaning, scaling air-jet polishing, and rotatory polishing techniques, are used to treat such stains.
Enamel Microabrasion
This technique removes superficial intrinsic discoloration that has not penetrated the teeth much deeper.
In this technique, an acidic and abrasive agent such as hydrochloric acid and silica is applied to the enamel surface with the help of a rotary mandrel on the low rotation of the micromotor. Sometimes it can be used with bleaching treatment as well.
Bleaching
These techniques have been used for whitening teeth for centuries, and all bleaching techniques involve oxidation reactions.
Nowadays, bleaching is considered a relatively safe treatment because of proper knowledge.
It is a safe, easy-to-use, and inexpensive treatment for tooth discoloration.
Bleaching can be vital or nonvital, depending on the patient.
Vital Bleaching
This bleaching treatment is specifically for patients with yellow, purple, orange, black, or any other type of external discoloration.
This can also help in removing tetracycline and chlorhexidine staining to some extent.
- The most common bleaching agent nowadays is carbamide peroxide and hydrogen peroxide. The higher the concentration used, the better the results. It is available in over-the-counter kits and at the dentist’s office.
- The concentration of this agent in dental offices is most commonly 15 to 40%, and dentists or dental hygienists can only use such high concentrations. For such professional whitening teeth, isolation from soft tissues is performed so that you don’t suffer from any caustic effects.
- Nowadays, home bleaching treatments are also very popular, and they can be used alone or in combination with in-office whitening; your dentist may suggest an over-the-counter whitening kit, which you can use under the supervision of your dentist or dental hygienist, most commonly at-home whitening kits contain 10 to 22% of hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide solution. Unlike in-office treatments, these treatments can’t be done in one sitting, and you must continuously use them for 2 to 6 weeks. You can use any over-the-counter home teeth whitening kit but make sure you are using one approved by the American Dental Association and FDA, as other kits may damage your teeth and soft tissues adversely.
- Another over-the-counter vital bleaching treatment is teeth whitening strips which contain 5.3% hydrogen peroxide. Dentists most commonly suggest these for maintaining already whitened teeth.
- Different whitening toothpaste is also considered in the vital bleaching category and contains 1% of hydrogen peroxide.
- If your teeth are stained excessively, removing them with the help of over-the-counter whitening kits is difficult. In such cases, the best results are achieved by combining in-office and at-home whitening and bleaching. Most patients also may require periodic retreatments.
- These bleaching treatments are most commonly used by a dentist as there is a very rare chance of any damage to oral tissue reaction, and also, no adverse reactions are observed in pregnant or lactating women. But it is also not advised to use it on pregnant and lactating women as a precautionary measure.
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Non-vital Bleaching
Unlike vital bleaching, nonvital bleaching is recommended for someone with intrinsic strains which involves dentine and pulp.
In this type of bleaching, a mixture containing 30% hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate is usually incorporated into the pulp chamber for one week or longer.
- For non-vital bleaching treatment, a tooth with a damaged Crown that is not restored is considered an ideal tooth.
- Cervical root resorption is a side effect in patients who lose pulp before the age of 25 years. Special intercanal barriers help deal with such patients.
FAQs
Can we treat internal stains at home?
No, it is impossible to treat internal stains by yourself.
How to know if my stains are internal or external?
In most cases, your dentist can help you to identify the type of stains. It is hard to determine it yourself, but if the stain doesn’t lighten with an at-home whitening treatment, you may know that these are internal stains.
Which whitening treatment is most effective?
It varies from person to person and depends on the type and severity of stains.
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Conclusion
Teeth Discoloration is something that can steal your smile and lower your confidence. Many people suffer from intrinsic and extrinsic stains and want to get rid of them, so here for such people, I have discussed how to fix teeth discoloration and what are possible treatments.