Yellow teeth: how to get rid of them?

If brushing was all that was needed to keep your teeth white, everyone would have the smile of a star. But this is not the case, and yellowing of the teeth is the result of different factors.

To restore the whiteness of your teeth, you must identify the sources of your enamel staining and apply the appropriate solution.

Tooth shade as a legacy

As a preamble, you should know that the natural shade of teeth is not the same for everyone and that it is hereditary. If your elders had beautiful white teeth, you're lucky and you need to maintain that luster.

However, if you inherit duller-colored teeth , there is no way to make them whiter, except possibly adding prostheses, in the form of veneers. The other trick is to brush your teeth with a toothpaste that tends to redden the gums and, in contrast, make the teeth appear whiter than they really are. Teeth with little mineralization, for example, may show yellow shades of dentin, due to a slightly translucent enamel.

On the other hand, you should not confuse the color of teeth with their quality. Some very white teeth can be extremely fragile, while others that are less dazzling will stand the test of time much better.

Finally, you must take into account the natural aging of your teeth. With age, the enamel wears down and becomes thinner, revealing more dentin which is more colored.

Aggravating factors in childhood

Children who have had to be treated with certain medications, especially antibiotics such as tetracycline or ciprofloxacin, may have their teeth permanently dulled.

All childhood diseases can also indirectly have a negative influence on the development of teeth. If, at a crucial moment in childhood, the organism has been weakened, the consequences can appear beyond the organ concerned by the disease, and thus on the teeth.

If these diseases develop while the permanent teeth are forming, and even if they are not yet out, the color may be affected.

Oral hygiene

Oral hygiene is the first cause we think of when teeth become yellow. Indeed, if you do not brush your teeth regularly, the impurities settle on your teeth and have time to impregnate their color.

Plaque, if not removed with a toothbrush, calcifies and sets in as tartar. As the latter is porous, it is colored by absorbing all the impurities that pass through the mouth, which further accelerates the coloring.

If you don't brush your teeth, bacteria and fungi find a particularly favourable ground to develop in your mouth and decorate your teeth with a charming yellow coloration, but which can also turn orange, brown, even green or black!

Finally, the lack of hygiene leads to cavities and infections that have a negative influence on the color of the teeth.

Contact with coloring products

Contact with dyes is the major cause of yellowing of the teeth. Even if your hygiene is impeccable, the colorings will eventually catch on the enamel and stick to it.

The best known examples are tobacco and tea. To fight against yellowing of the teeth by tobacco, there is no other solution than to stop smoking! In addition to the disastrous effect on the teeth, tobacco causes lung diseases, but also oral diseases.

Throat and tongue cancers are common in smokers. Other than brushing your teeth thoroughly after each cigarette to prevent the stain from setting in, there is no solution to yellowing teeth.

For your tea consumption – and coffee which has more or less the same effect – you can limit the damage by drinking it through a straw. It is not the most elegant, but it avoids the contact with the teeth, thus the stained deposit. You only have to look inside a teapot to see the havoc this plant wreaks. Try to rinse your mouth, if not brush your teeth, after drinking tea or coffee.

The main foods that are most harmful to the whiteness of your teeth are wine (especially red wine), licorice and all its derivatives, red fruits, beets and certain chemical drinks.

Medication

Some medications taken as an adult can stain your teeth. Antibiotics are still the worst offenders, but unfortunately they are the only solution for many pathologies.

Dentures and amalgams

Dentures, appliances, amalgams, glues and other foreign elements can promote staining. They can be more susceptible to transfer by food and are also sometimes more difficult to clean.

You should also consider the age of the work you may have done in your lifetime. Amalgam fillings on cavities or crowns can be more than twenty years old and it is not abnormal that they age. The quality of materials is constantly improving. They are more and more resistant to aggressions and will gradually replace the old, more sensitive dressings and prostheses.

Orthodontic appliances are very expensive. Therefore, a helping hand from a dental insurance company can be very useful.

What are the solutions to avoid yellow teeth?

Oral hygiene

Dental hygiene to begin with is the best way to avoid yellow teeth. You should brush your teeth after each meal to remove plaque and delay its calcification and fixation on the teeth in the form of tartar.

If you have very crowded teeth, flossing helps get rid of the bits stuck between your teeth. If your teeth are normally spaced apart, you may prefer to use interdental brushes, which are very effective, once a day. The pulsating jet is also a very good way to finish removing plaque and it provides a welcome massage of the gums.

Descaling

Even with impeccable oral hygiene, most people end up with tartar on their teeth. It comes from the water we drink or use for cooking, but also from saliva, because it carries more or less depending on the person.

There are many natural methods to remove tartar if it is not yet too fixed, but the most effective is scaling at the dentist. You are entitled to two scaling treatments per year that are reimbursed by the social security. In any case, you should go to the dentist once a year for a check-up, so take the opportunity to have a scaling.

There are also descaling kits available to do at home. Make sure they are of good quality. If they are not strong enough, they are useless, if they are too strong, they can damage your teeth irreparably by attacking their enamel.

Tooth whitening at the dentist

You can have your teeth whitened at the dentist. First of all, he takes your impressions in order to make personalized gutters. He then provides you with product in syringes that you apply in the trays and leave on your teeth for several hours a day, or overnight. The product is made from hydrogen peroxide. Depending on the concentration of the product, the treatment lasts between one and two weeks.

Bleaching can also be done in the office, with much higher doses and exposure for one hour.

The whiteness remains for three or four years, provided that you do not abuse coloring substances and that you maintain your teeth properly.

Note that whitening can never be whiter than the natural color of your teeth. It will give them a facelift, but does not change their structure.

Bleaching at the dentist is the most effective treatment. It costs between 400 and 1000 € and is rarely reimbursed by the complementary health insurance. It is not covered at all by social security.

To find a mutual insurance company that covers some of these whitening services, go to our free mutual insurance comparison service:

Home bleaching kits

There are all kinds of home whitening kits: toothpaste, hydrogen peroxide trays, strips with whitening gel, gel to apply with a brush…

You must take every precaution, as any overdosed product can attack your tooth enamel. At first, they will appear whiter, but the porous enamel will then absorb all the stains, not to mention the attacks of bacteria that will multiply.

So be extremely careful, especially since products coming mainly from China may indicate fancy dosages to get through customs and may be either too aggressive or ineffective. We have selected what we believe to be the best teeth whitening kits with our opinion on the subject, without calling on dentists.

We recommend Smile Avenue's product if you want to do your teeth whitening at home:

Whitenign pens

Last solution, the whitening pens You go there as if you were at the hairdresser's and you spend about twenty minutes with a silicone tray, filled with a whitening product, and under a LED light.

Here again, caution is advised. Bars are subject to strict rules regarding the dosage of hydrogen peroxide. If they comply with the law, the dosage is so low that it has very little effect, if they don't comply, you may be putting your enamel at risk.