Discoloured Front Tooth
The causes of a Discoloured Front Tooth can be divided into two main types. These are EXTRINSIC and INTRINSIC
EXTRINSIC tooth discolouration
Let’s first look at what extrinsic tooth discolouration is. A less fancy name for this type of tooth discolouration is called staining. Extrinsic tooth discolouration is basically when substances form on the surface of the tooth enamel to make it go a different colour which is usually a mixture of yellow and brown depending on the actual substance. The severity, colour and which teeth are affected depends on different factors.
Some substances will discolour your teeth more than others. Also, the length of time a particular substance is in contact with your teeth will influence how stained your teeth will become. The substances which produce the most common type of teeth staining are tobacco ( both smoking and chewing type), red wine, curry, tea, coffee, tomato-based sauces, soya sauce, and red berries. Quite a few medications also produce teeth staining. Iron supplements produce a really dark, almost black discolouration. As well as staining your teeth, these will also stain the tongue, especially down the middle. There is also a medication that dentists prescribe which ironically produces a really tough stain to eventually remove off. It is a medication called Corsodyl or chlorhexidine which is used in the treatment of gum disease ( periodontitis) and for ulcers or infections of the gums and oral mucosa.
Treatment of EXTRINSIC tooth discolouration
Extrinsic teeth stains are much easier to treat than the other type of tooth discolouration known as intrinsic tooth discolouration.
Treatment is based on prevention, home treatment and professional based care.
Prevention
The obvious message is to reduce the frequency and amounts of foods/drinks that cause the discolouration in the first place. But if life was so easy and simple, we would all be living on water and bread. The best advice is to cut down if you can on foods or drinks that cause staining of your teeth. It all depends on your life circumstances as well. If you are smoking because you are going through a lot of stress, then the last thing you need is more stress and worrying about your teeth getting darker will not be on your list of top priorities. If you can easily cut down or cut off altogether a particular food, then that’s fine and you should.
An interesting phenomenon is for those patients who wear dentures because even they don’t get away from staining. So even if you wear dentures, the above foods and drinks will still stain your denture teeth.
How to clean stains off your teeth at home
In this section, we will talk about proven ways to clean stains off your teeth and also other ways which you see on the internet as being “miracle” methods.
Home treatments
In terms of home treatments, the three things to focus on are tooth brushing technique, toothpaste and toothbrush.
The right toothbrush to use.
The right toothbrush to use is one that will be hard enough to remove teeth staining and with small enough bristles to get into all the nooks and crannies and spaces in between adjacent teeth. But at the same time, it must not be so harsh that damage is caused to the enamel of the teeth. With this in mind, you will know yourself which toothbrush is the best for you by trying out several different ones. We don’t believe there is much difference between a manual or an electric one. They can all do the job as long as they are used correctly. Using disclosing tablets both before and after brushing will also indicate how effective your brushing really is. It is important to remember that even if you have the world’s best ultimate toothbrush, you still won’t get rid of all stains.
The right tooth brushing technique to use.
There are lots of different toothbrushing techniques and even dentists have their own preferred one. It doesn’t matter what the technique is as long as you are removing all the plaque from your teeth in all areas. There will be areas where even the smallest normal toothbrush can’t get into and for these areas you need additional aids. These additional aids can be dental floss, dental sticks and interdental brushes. Once again, disclosing tablets will tell you how effective you are brushing and areas where you are lacking.
An important factor to bear in mind is that it takes time and effort to really effectively clean your teeth thoroughly twice a day.
The right toothpaste to use.
An ordinary toothpaste helps to reduce staining and remove plaque by its abrasive action. It would, therefore, make sense to use the most abrasive toothpaste but you have to be careful because if it is too abrasive, then this can damage the gums and even cause your protective enamel layer to wear away faster. Some smokers toothpaste can be too abrasive but on the whole, nowadays, most manufacturers stick within a safe limit. Toothpaste which claims to reduce staining and whiten teeth will be much more expensive and probably do not make that much difference to justify their price tags. We recommend that use a toothpaste that you actually like using and in the low to mid-price range.
Professional based care
Even if you are focussing on your tooth brushing technique, toothpaste and toothbrush, stains will still occur on your teeth and the only way to get rid of these is to visit your dentist or dental hygienist. Your dentist or dental hygienist has special tools and methods to get rid of many of these stains as possible. To do the job properly takes time so you should be prepared to pay for the necessary time accordingly or you can agree to a fixed fee beforehand. Your dentist or dental hygienist will use ultrasonic scalers, Airflow, tooth bleaching, prophlaxis brushes, prophlaxis paste and interdental strips as a way to remove as many stains as possible. Once everything is completed, you will definitely notice a massive improvement and this could just be the incentive to keep off all the substances that stained your teeth in the first place. Having said this, even your dentist or dental hygienist still won’t be able to remove every single bit of staining, especially in cracks or fissures so it is important to be realistic at what can and what can’t be achieved.
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