What Can Be Done About Persistent Tooth Staining?

How we treat stubborn teeth staining at our Wickford dental practice and also offer advice to prevent recurrence.

For anyone who wants to have a nice white attractive smile, one of the most frustrating things is that, despite regular and good quality cleaning of the teeth, they seem to get darker, rather than whiter. This can even cause some patients to brush much harder than usual in order to try to remove any discolouration and restore the whiteness. Unfortunately, in many cases, this is more likely to lead to enamel erosion and sensitive teeth.

There are a number of ways that stained teeth can be treated and, of course, there are several things that you can do to at least slow this down, and we will take a look at these in today’s blog.

Why do teeth become stained?

Teeth can stain for a number of reasons. The most obvious of these is due to consumption of foods and drinks that are known for their staining properties. Common ones include coffee and red wine. There are others too, such as white wine, which isn’t so obvious due to its colour. Wine is acidic though and can cause the surface enamel to become rougher and make staining easier. Often, this type of staining builds up slowly and you may not notice the change until you compare it with an older photograph.

One of the worst staining problems is tooth staining caused by smoking. This is also a major cause of mouth cancer and should be avoided altogether for both of these reasons.

Intrinsic teeth staining

This is another name for staining that doesn’t appear on the surface enamel of the teeth but in the more porous layer beneath it which then shows through the enamel. This isn’t caused by food and drinks but is simply a natural occurrence as we get older, in the same way we might become grey haired or develop wrinkles on the skin. It is just life. It can also be caused by other factors such as trauma to the tooth in the past or to certain medications.

Like general enamel staining though, teeth that have discoloured in this way can be improved by treatments carried out at the Cygnet dental Practice by our experienced team.

What action can be taken?

The most obvious action for enamel staining is to avoid products that do this. It is probably unlikely that we will avoid all of them though and some staining is probably inevitable. Brushing our teeth will help of course, and a scale and polish procedure carried out at your Wickford dental clinic can also be very effective at removing some staining from the tooth surface. For heavier or more persistent staining though, one of the two following cosmetic dental treatments are likely to be more successful.

Teeth whitening

Some people also refer to this as teeth bleaching and it is true that a form of bleach is used during this treatment. Before this though, we need to check your oral health and restore any teeth affected by decay or other damage first as there is no point in whitening teeth that would fail without treatment.

Once this has been done, we will discuss the level of whiteness you would like to achieve so that we can adjust the treatment accordingly. We then take impressions of your teeth. This is so that a secure and comfortable fitting tray can be produced to contain the whitening gel we will provide. You will need to wear this for a few hours each day, as advised by your dentist, and usually for around a fortnight. After this, you will find that your teeth have become several shades lighter. This treatment works best on relatively mild staining and discolouration.

Porcelain veneers

Where staining is heavier, the teeth whitening procedure may only produce limited results. Another option is to have porcelain veneers fitted. This does require some invasive dentistry however. In order to restore the teeth with veneers, the natural teeth will often need to be prepared by having a fine layer of enamel ‘shaved’ from the front surface. We will then take impressions of these so that the veneers can be made at a dental laboratory. Once returned, they are fitted using a special dental adhesive.

Finally, the porcelain veneers will be trimmed, shaped and polished to greatly improve the appearance of your teeth. They are also effective in restoring chipped or cracked teeth as well.

While a certain level of discolouration and/or staining is probably inevitable, having to put up with duller looking teeth isn’t, thanks to cosmetic dentistry. If you are dissatisfied with the way that your teeth look, why not talk to us about it to see how we can help? You can contact the Cygnet Dental Practice by calling us on 01283 845345.