Posted: November 23, 2015
Most patients who undergo teeth whitening treatment at our office in Calgary have noticed a gradual decline in the brilliance of their smiles. Even with a healthy dental hygiene routine, certain outside factors can slowly diminish the gleaming lustre of any tooth.
Over time, your teeth can become not-so-bright and require the help of a cosmetic dentist for a number of reasons, including:
- Tobacco use: Tar and nicotine, both found in tobacco, create stubborn stains. While tar is naturally dark, nicotine is colourless until it’s mixed with oxygen. Once that happens, it transforms into a yellow, tooth-staining substance.
- Trauma: Your tooth may change color after an injury. After you’ve been hit in the mouth, your tooth responds by laying down dentin, a darker layer beneath enamel.
- Food and drink: Some of the famous tooth-staining culprits are red wine, coffee and tea. All of these drinks have one thing in common: intense colour pigments called chromogens that attach to your tooth’s enamel.
- Medication: Tooth discolouration can be a side effect of some blood pressure medications, antihistamines and antipsychotics. Chemotherapy and neck or head radiation can also darken teeth. Young children are exposed to certain antibiotics such as doxycycline and tetracycline while their teeth forming may experience tooth discoloration in their adult teeth.
- Age: Dentin is the softer area beneath your tooth’s hard, white outer layer. As you age, your tooth’s outer enamel layer grows thin from a lifetime of brushing, and the yellow dentin layer below becomes increasingly visible.
The teeth whitening services at Aesthetic Dental Studio help our patients from Calgary and beyond regain their brilliant white smiles quickly and safely. If you’d like to learn if teeth whitening is right for you, contact us today online or at 403-543-4600 to schedule an appointment. We proudly serves patients from Cochrane and other Alberta communities.
