Yellow teeth: causes, remedies, and prevention

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A beautiful, healthy, and well-groomed smile greatly enhances self-esteem, confidence toward others, and faith in everyday life.

Some people, however, experience a sense of discomfort and shame because of the yellowing of their teeth. Yellow teeth are not always the result of inadequate oral hygiene but can result from several factors, from genetics to foods ingested to liquids drunk, as well as many other things.

Fortunately, modern medicine is well versed in the causes of yellowing teeth, as well as all the strategies for prevention and especially treatment.

Yellow teeth: causes, remedies, and prevention
A beautiful, healthy, and well-groomed smile significantly increases self-esteem and confidence toward others and everyday life. Some people, however, experience a sense of discomfort and shame because of the yellowing of their teeth. Yellow teeth are not always the result of inadequate oral hygiene but can result from several factors, from genetics to foods ingested to liquids drunk, as well as many other things.

What tooth color depends on
The actual tissues on which tooth color depends are two: enamel, which is more external, and dentin, which is more internal. Three main factors determine it: hue, chroma, and value. Hue is the color of dentin, chroma is the saturation level of the shade, and the value represents brightness.

Genetics is also at play.
Dr. Elisabetta Polizzi, coordinator of the Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene and director of the Center for Oral Hygiene and Prevention at San Raffaele Vita-Salute University in Milan, confirms that genetics plays a vital role. In fact, despite all the care that can be put into it, some people have healthier and whiter teeth than others. It is not always a matter of discipline; some people have more problems than others.

Extrinsic causes of yellowing
Extrinsic reasons refer to the deposition, on tooth enamel, of chromogenic substances, the result of prolonged consumption of, for example, foods such as chocolate, licorice, soy sauces, coffee, red wine, and drinks rich in dark dyes. Smoking also results in the yellowing of teeth due to nicotine. This color change can also occur due to poor oral hygiene, which leads to the accumulation of plaque and tartar. Insufficient salivation also damages natural enamel.

Intrinsic causes of yellowing
Intrinsic causes include malformation processes, abnormalities in enamel formation, caries in childhood, hereditary syndromes, and considerable use of tetracyclines and other antibiotics.

Professional cleaning sessions are the first solution
Therefore, each person has their natural tooth coloring; dentists recommend cleaning and oral hygiene sessions one to four times yearly. The latest generation is so-called air polishing systems, based on amino acids that can remove anything that adheres to the tooth.

However, dental cleaning is not enough to restore beautiful tooth color in some cases. In these circumstances, it is necessary to resort to teeth whitening treatments, which a dentist or dental hygienist must perform. In fact, a lot of precision is needed in caries or periodontitis to prevent the substances used from worsening the situation.

Whitening toothpaste
Some treatments, such as whitening toothpaste, can be bought in pharmacies, but they are not as effective as the methods used by dentists. Specifically, this toothpaste may contain whitening agents in a much lower concentration than those used in professional offices. So it would be best to use them long and consistently to be effective.