Learn Why Your Teeth Change Colour

No one wants dark discoloured teeth, but there are certain pleasures in life that encourage us to over indulge in dark foods and bad habits that unfortunately leaves us with horrible discoloured teeth, such as tobacco smoking, drinking tea, coffee, wines or even eating certain fruits and vegetables can stain our teeth. Foods, drinks and tobacco smoking are the most common causes of tooth discolouration, but there are many other causes:

Although the top causes of tooth discolouration is down to the consumption of dark foods, drinks and smoking there are other reasons such as: POOR ORAL HYGIENE - Its vital that you adapt a good brushing and flossing technique, because failure to remove plaque and food build-up will only make way for stains to start building up.

Medication
Tetracycline and Doxycycline are antibiotics that treat bacterial infections. They are among the safe category of antibiotics that are given to pregnant women, however one of the known side-effects is the unborn child can end up with staining/discoloured teeth. Also when young children are given the antibiotic it can stain their teeth, not just a surface stain but the staining goes deep into the teeth. And to think that it could'nt get any worse there are some infections that pregnant women contract that causes tooth discloouration and this cannot be prevented.

Age
Over the years our teeth will start to wear and tear from grinding and chewing this will reveal the natural colour of the underlying dentine which is a more yellowish colour, also as our teeth wear, the enamel starts to form tiny defects which will allow small amounts of food debris to accumulate causing stain build up.

CALCIUM METABOLISM DISORDER - the name given to unsual amounts of calcium levels found in the body. This is caused by conditions such as; Hypocalcaemia - which is low levels of calcium in the blood. Milk Alkali Syndrome – is caused by an excessive in take of calcium whether due to excessively drinking milk, the use of calcium supplements and/or high vitamin D in take.

MEDICAL TREATMENTS - There are certain treatments which are known to weaken the enamel and make it brittle such as head and neck radiation and chemotherapy, this will make it possible for dark foods and drinks to penetrate the tooth surface and cause stains.


GENETICS - There is no way for us to escape genetics, and unfortunately no matter how hard you try to avoid dark food or drinks there is no getting away from your yellowish coloured teeth, although the use of a professional laser teeth whitening system could improve the shade of your teeth.

FLUORIDE - Is important to maintaining our tooths structure, however if we have consume more than required this can leave your teeth with an unsightly mottled appearance, and sometimes we have no control over this as flouride is present in our local water supply.

AMALGAM FILLINGS - Sometimes its necessary for us to need a filling and because not all of us can afford the white ones we must accept amalgam fillings which is a dark grey powdered alloy and mercury mixture, and can sometime rub off on to nearby teeth leaving stains known as amalgam tattoo.

Learn more about tooth discolouration and how to treat it with laser teeth whitening technology