Helpful Tips
You take good care of your teeth. You brush twice a day and visit the dentist regularly for check-ups. However, not everyone has even white teeth. Discoloration of the teeth is not always preventable. Fortunately, it is treatable.
Teeth discoloration can have various causes. If your mother took antibiotics as a pregnant woman, you may be suffering from a ‘tetracycline discoloration’. This dark brown discoloration on the outside of your teeth only becomes visible when your adult teeth have erupted.
stimulants
Throughout your life, dyes from food and stimulants leave traces on your teeth. Coffee, tea, smoking and wine are good examples of this. Filling cavities and placing crowns can cause color differences in the mouth.
If a nerve of a tooth dies and the dead contents of the root canal remain, this can give a blue-gray discoloration. This discoloration is inside your tooth.
Therapy
You can try to brush away discolorations on the surface of the tooth. Various whitening toothpastes are available for this. Discolorations are often deeper in the enamel, so that brushing away does not help. Then you can have your teeth whitened. Below are the most common applications for smooth teeth.
fillings
Color differences due to the filling of cavities or the placement of crowns can be prevented by asking for a filling with tooth-colored material. The dark amalgam filling that used to fill all cavities can now be replaced by a tooth-colored filling: composite.
dead teeth
When a tooth is called dead, it is really only the nerve that has died. If the dead nerve remains in the tooth, the tooth will discolor on the inside. The dentist can remove the dead nerve with a root canal. After this, he or she can apply a so-called ‘on-going bleaching method’. Then the cavity where the nerve has been is filled with a bleaching liquid. This liquid is removed after a few days and replaced by a white filling that permanently fills the cavity.
facing
The ongoing whitening method does not have the desired result in all cases. Then a crown or facing is the last resort. A crown is a tooth-colored sheath that is placed over the buffed tooth.
Facing is the application of a layer of composite on the front of the teeth. This masks discolorations. Facing is also used to adjust the shape and position of the teeth.
bleaching
Teeth whitening is a relatively simple way to whiten your teeth. It is therefore preferable to invasive means such as veneers or crowns. However, the result may vary from person to person. Bleaching is not extremely expensive, but is often not covered by insurance.
Benefits of whitening
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The tooth color improves, especially with small even discolourations.
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In the case of a dead tooth, additional treatment with, for example, a facing can be prevented or made easier.
Cons
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The result is not very predictable.
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Over time, the result diminishes, so that re-treatment is often necessary.
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Smoking, tea and coffee will often cause discoloration over time. This happens even faster than before bleaching, because bleaching makes the surface of the teeth more porous.
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Increase in the sensitivity of the teeth. This is usually a temporary effect.
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