How To Treat Yellow Teeth Effectively

If there is one message that Golden Square Dental wants everyone to understand, it’s the importance of good dental hygiene.

If you brush properly twice a day, floss at least once a day, and visit us on a regular schedule, you should have clean, healthy teeth and gums.

Unfortunately, even great dental hygiene does not guarantee that your teeth will always be as white as you would like, so what can be done about it?

There are many factors that affect the colouration of our teeth, some we can control and some that are beyond our control. Understanding these factors and their treatments are the first step to erasing that yellow from your smile!

Causes of Yellow Teeth

Tooth discolouration can either be caused by extrinsic stains or intrinsic stains. In general, extrinsic stains are easier to treat.

Extrinsic Stain Causes

Extrinsic stains are like stains on the rug. You constantly eat foods with colour pigments and some of that colour ends up on your tooth enamel and sticks there if not dealt with quickly.

Intrinsic Stains Causes

Intrinsic stains are more complicated. With intrinsic staining, what causes tooth yellowing isn’t caused from the outside. Instead, the tooth naturally becomes dull-looking.

There are a number of reasons why teeth yellow, including:

• Ageing

  The white glossy substance covering the crown of a tooth is enamel. As we age the outer layer of enamel is eaten away, becoming thinner and thinner. At a certain point, dentin’s yellow color starts to show up through the thinning enamel.

• Certain Medications

  The use of antibiotics such as tetracycline or doxycycline are common causes of yellow teeth in children. In adults, several drugs can have the same effect. This is one reason you should keep your dentist aware of all your regular medications.

• Fluoride

  Excess intake of fluoride is one of the causes of yellow teeth. This fluoride finds its way onto teeth where it causes yellow teeth stains.

• Foods and Beverages

  Some foods and beverages, particularly intensely coloured ones like berries, cherries, coffee, tea, cola and red wine, are known to cause teeth stains. Surprisingly, other foods that cause yellow teeth include potatoes and apples!

• Tobacco

  Both smoking and chewing tobacco can cause yellow teeth stains.

• Poor Hygiene

  Yellow stains on teeth may result from poor dental hygiene. Failure to brush and floss teeth regularly may lead to accumulation of stain-causing residue on teeth.

• Genetic Predisposition

  Some yellow teeth stains may be due to a genetic predisposition to thin enamel. The thinner your enamel, the more visible the yellow dentin layer is and hence the more pronounced the yellow stains.

Prevention & Treatment of Yellow Teeth

Although we can try our best to control the yellowing of our teeth by prevention, sometimes it’s just not possible and we have to look towards treatment methods.

While there are many OTC treatments of yellow teeth, none are as effective and safe as the treatments offered at Golden Square Dental.

Treating Yellow Teeth at Golden Square Dental

Professional Take-Home Whitening Kit

This is simple to use and cost effective. We take impressions of your teeth, and then make moulds and custom-fitted trays, which are used to hold tooth bleaching gel in your mouth.

You soak your teeth in the bleaching gel for about two hours per day. The results appear in one to two weeks and you can control the degree of “whiteness” that you desire.

In Chair Teeth Whitening

This procedure is carried out in our office using a whitening light for teeth bleaching. The process takes 1-2 hours depending on the degree of ‘whiteness’ that you want to achieve. This is by far the fastest and most effective way of teeth whitening. Golden Square Dental uses top quality lamps and teeth whitening gel, which are guaranteed safe and effective. Gum protection and gel are also used to minimize sensitivity during and after the procedure. Results are spectacular!

Other treatments are also available, including veneers to cover dingy teeth. Dental veneers are often an ideal treatment in the case of intrinsic stains that cannot be whitened ‘from the outside’.

Get the Golden Square Dental Glow!

Established in 1976, Golden Square Dental strives to provide your family with the highest standard of dental care in a warm and friendly environment.

Our primary focus is you. We do everything to ensure that you are comfortable in our practice and confident in our care. We combine the latest in modern dental technology with traditional approaches to provide the best in family dental care in a relaxing atmosphere.

Golden Square Dental is a family focused dental practice with a strong emphasis on preventative care and general dentistry to help you and your family achieve a healthy smile for life.

We offer flexible appointment times Monday to Friday.

Call us at (03) 5443 0063 or book your appointment online today!