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:
Poor Oral Hygiene
The removal of plaque and food build up is crucial to our teeth for many reasons, but when it comes to discolouration inadequate brushing will not reduce the risk of staining therefore adapting a good brushing and flossing technique will go a long way in preventing stain build up.
MEDICATON - Bacterial infections needs to be treated with antibiotics and the use of Doxycycline and Tetracyline can be used. It is a safe antibiotic for pregnant women, but unfortunately it can cause staining to the unborn child's 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 - As the years go by the daily activities of us chewing and grinding our foods will soon start to wear the tooth surface down this is unavoidable, the enamel might thin and show the dentine this is a yellowish colour, or tiny defects might form and allow food to collect giving way to stain build up.
Calcium Metabolism Disorder
Calcium metabolism disorder is the abnormality of calcium levels in our body. Low levels found in the blood can be caused by condition like Hypocalceamia. 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
Amalgam Fillings are powdered alloy and mercury mixed together to form a plastic mass and then used as a filling material, this is a dark grey material which can sometime rub of onto the neighbouring teeth causing a stain, this is known as an amalgam tattoo.
