Over time, your teeth's color can naturally change. While our teeth's enamel color can vary as we grow older, certain environmental factors and habits can accelerate discoloration. At other times, the color of your tooth enamel is directly linked to your tooth's health. For example, your tooth could appear discolored or stained if you have a cavity.
Regardless of the cause, stained or discolored teeth can significantly impact the aesthetics of your smile and your confidence. If you have a discolored or stained tooth, you do not have to live with it for the rest of your life. Consulting with a reliable dentist as soon as you notice a change in your teeth's appearance is key.
Your dentist can help determine the cause of the discoloration and recommend appropriate cosmetic treatment to keep your teeth pearly white. Here are some of the best treatment remedies your dentist could recommend to keep your teeth bright:
Brush Your Teeth Properly
One of the crucial proactive steps for keeping your teeth pearly white is brushing and flossing them at least twice daily. Dentists recommend brushing your teeth twice daily because it helps remove plaque (a yellow or white film of bacteria on the surface of your teeth) and stains you have probably picked up during the day after drinking staining beverages.
If possible, you should buy an electric toothbrush, as it offers up to twice the cleaning power of a manual toothbrush. When brushing your teeth, you should also consider using hydrogen peroxide and baking soda paste, which you likely have in your kitchen.
Baking soda helps improve the aesthetic appearance of your teeth because of its mild abrasive nature, which helps clean out stains when brushing your teeth. It is no wonder that baking soda is commonly used as an ingredient in most toothpaste brands. Conversely, hydrogen peroxide acts as a bleaching agent that can remove stains from your teeth.
Hydrogen peroxide can also help kill harmful bacteria in your mouth, reducing your risk of cavities, which can make your teeth appear discolored. Mixing these two substances can make a perfect teeth-whitening paste that you can use to brush your teeth and keep them pearly white.
Ensure you mix four tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide and two tablespoons of baking soda to make your excellent tooth-whitening paste. However, the toothpaste you make does not need to replace your usual fluoridated toothpaste. Fluoride, which is a common ingredient in most toothpastes, helps remineralize and strengthen your teeth.
It is also worth noting that aggressive tooth brushing does not necessarily result in whiter teeth. Instead, aggressive toothbrushing can make your teeth's enamel wear out faster, exposing the dentin layer, which is dark.
Floss Your Teeth Properly Daily
Like brushing, flossing regularly is vital for keeping your teeth bright. While brushing helps in keeping your teeth clean, this practice alone is not enough. That is why most dentists recommend you floss your teeth daily. In addition to removing food particles that become stuck in the spaces between your teeth, flossing daily helps break down plaque on the surfaces of your teeth.
The best time to floss your teeth is usually after eating or snacking, to remove food particles that can linger between your teeth. By flossing your teeth at least twice daily, you can reduce your risk of tooth decay and cavities, which can affect the appearance of your teeth.
If you are unsure how to floss your teeth effectively, your dentist can offer guidance to ensure you reap the most benefits from this daily oral care routine.
Limit the Intake of Discoloring or Sugary Foods
Having bright teeth says a lot about your oral health and habits. Another crucial way to keep your teeth pearly white is to limit your intake of staining foods and beverages, including dark chocolate, red wine, coffee, and tea. Staining agents in these foods and beverages can accumulate on your tooth surface over time, leading to teeth discoloration.
By monitoring your intake of staining foods and beverages, you can reduce staining at the source and maintain your pearly whites for as long as possible. While you do not have to cut your intake of these foods and beverages suddenly, you can begin by swapping them with other alternatives. For example, you can begin by:
- Swapping coffee for decaf coffee, matcha green tea, or herbal tea
- Swapping red wine for mocktails or white wine
- Choosing clear or light-colored sodas and juices over the colored ones
If you cannot limit your intake of these staining beverages, you can reduce their impact on your teeth by sipping them using a straw. Drinking these beverages using a straw helps prevent their direct contact with your teeth.
Foods and beverages high in sugar are also enemies of your dental health and aesthetics. Consuming sugary foods and beverages encourages the growth of Streptococcus mutans, which is the bacterium that causes gingivitis and cavities. Therefore, if you want to achieve a brighter smile, limiting your intake of sugary foods is as vital as limiting your intake of staining foods.
While brushing your teeth after consuming sugary or staining beverages is a helpful way to keep your teeth white, you should wait at least 60 minutes to reduce their impact on your tooth color. The acids inherent in these foods, as well as those excreted by bacteria after breaking down the sugar in the food, can soften your tooth enamel.
Hence, brushing your teeth immediately after consuming these foods could damage or weaken your teeth's enamel. The 60-minute wait period is also important, as it helps prevent these acids and stains from penetrating your enamel and leading to tooth discoloration.
Incorporate Specific Teeth-Whitening Foods into Your Diet
While you are likely aware that brushing and flossing your teeth help keep them white, strong, and healthy, you may not think about how your dietary choices can affect them. The food you eat daily can significantly affect the whiteness of your teeth.
Although it is easy to pinpoint foods and beverages that can stain and discolor your teeth, identifying the specific foods that can help keep them pearly white can be more difficult. Several types of foods can help improve the aesthetic appearance of your teeth, and incorporating them into your daily diet is important. Examples of these foods include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Dairy Products
Consuming dairy products like cheese, yogurt, and milk can help you achieve a brighter smile because they contain properties that help whiten and strengthen teeth, including lactic acid and calcium. Chewing these foods can also stimulate saliva production, which helps wash away plaque and food particles that linger in your mouth after eating.
- Crunchy Vegetables and Fruits
Eating crunchy vegetables and fruits, including carrots, apples, and celery, can go a long way toward keeping your teeth pearly white. In addition to stimulating your salivary glands to produce saliva, the abrasive nature of these foods helps scrub plaque off your teeth as you chew, leaving them whiter and brighter. Fruits like pineapples also contain bromelain, an effective ingredient that can help remove stains from your teeth.
- Nuts
Much like your toothbrush, munching on nuts like almonds, walnuts, and cashews can improve the appearance of your smile by their abrasive nature, which scrubs plaque and other stains off your teeth. Nuts are also rich in calcium, a vital mineral that helps strengthen your teeth's enamel and keep cavities at bay.
- Broccoli
Broccoli is rich in fiber, which helps reduce inflammation in your mouth and polishes your teeth as you chew, removing plaque and stains. The iron in broccoli also plays a crucial role in keeping your teeth white by protecting them from acids produced by bacteria.
A reliable, seasoned dentist can advise you on healthy foods you can incorporate into your diet to improve the aesthetics of your teeth.
Practice Oil Pulling
With its roots in India, oil pulling is an ancient oral care practice that can help improve the aesthetics of your teeth. Also known as "snow teeth whitening," oil pulling is a healthy practice that involves swishing oil around your mouth. Doing that regularly can help remove harmful bacteria that form the plaque, making your teeth appear discolored or stained.
While you can use any healthy oil of your choice, coconut oil is a common choice for many people because:
- It has an amazing taste
- It has several other health benefits
- It has lauric acid, which has antimicrobial properties
- It does not expose your teeth to acids that can erode your teeth's enamel
According to research, practicing oil pulling daily can help reduce bacteria and plaque in your mouth, which can cause gingivitis and cavities. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to perform oil pulling:
- Put one tablespoon of coconut oil (approximately 15 millimeters) into your mouth after melting it, since it is solid at room temperature
- Swish the oil in your mouth by pushing and pulling it around your teeth
- Spit out your oily residue and rinse your mouth with hot water
Practicing oil pulling at least twice weekly for about fifteen to twenty minutes can whiten your discolored teeth naturally.
Schedule Regular Dental Visits
Have you noticed that children tend to have naturally pearly white teeth? While everyone’s teeth start pearly white, the outer surface protective layer of the tooth, also known as the enamel, can naturally thin with time, exposing your dark dentin (the layer beneath the enamel), which makes your tooth appear stained.
Unfortunately, some of us are more likely to develop stained teeth than others due to genetics and other lifestyle choices, including smoking. However, prevention is better than a cure, and by taking proactive steps, you can prevent severe discoloration from becoming severe.
You can prevent tooth stains and discolorations before they occur by practicing healthy habits discussed above and scheduling routine dental appointments with your dentist. During your routine appointments with your dentist, he/she can assess your oral and dental health to determine the cause of teeth discoloration.
If your discoloration is a sign of a cavity, your dentist will recommend appropriate treatment to reverse the problem before it becomes serious and expensive to treat. For discoloration caused by a cavity, your dentist can recommend a tooth filling or root canal therapy if the pulp chamber of the tooth is compromised to prevent the progression of the issue.
However, if your teeth are healthy but have superficial stains, the dentist can recommend the following cosmetic dental treatments to give you the smile makeover that you deserve:
- Teeth cleaning — Routine dental cleaning at your dentist clinic can help eliminate stubborn stains that are challenging to remove at home using your toothbrush, especially at the back of your teeth
- Dental veneers — Veneers are a thin, tooth-colored, custom-made shell that your dentist attaches and bonds to the front surface of your teeth, especially the front teeth, to mask various imperfections, including minor chips and stains
- Teeth whitening — This is an in-office procedure that your dentist performs to whiten your discolored or stained teeth using controlled bleaching agents like hydrogen peroxide
According to the ADA (American Dental Association), scheduling regular dental appointments with your dentist at least twice a year, or every 6 months, can go a long way toward keeping your teeth healthy and white.
If you do not have a family dentist, you should consider finding one that you can run to if you or a loved one has any oral or dental health concerns. Ensure the dentist you choose to help keep your teeth white and healthy is:
- Experienced and reputable
- Available and accessible
- Licensed and credible
- Cost-friendly
Find a Seasoned Cosmetic Dentist Near Me
Having a reliable dentist to help keep your or your loved ones' teeth pearly white and healthy as you age is important. At Valencia Advanced Dentistry at Copperhill Smiles, we understand the importance of keeping your teeth pearly white. Call us at 661-775-7717 if you or a loved one has a stained or discolored tooth that affects his/her self-esteem and confidence to speak in public in Santa Clarita.
Once you schedule an appointment with us, we will recommend appropriate cosmetic dental treatments to give you an appealing smile and keep your teeth healthy.
