Why Are My Teeth Becoming Discolored as I Age?
You might be surprised to learn that getting older increases your risk of tooth discolorations. Here’s what you need to know about age-related teeth stains and damage. Keep reading to learn more.
What Causes Teeth to Lose Their Whiteness?
Just about all of us — 99% of us, in fact — desire a bright and healthy smile and consider that smile to be our most important social feature. However, for many of us, our teeth start to lose their whiteness over time.
Your teeth can start to become discolored for a myriad of reasons. Our team at 2K Dental wants to review those reasons with you and offer some solutions on how to get your whitest smile yet.
Why your teeth lose whiteness
There are three main causes for tooth discoloration, and they are: extrinsic, intrinsic, and age-related.
Extrinsic
Extrinsic discoloration happens when stains only affect the outside surface layer — or the enamel — of your teeth. The most common things that cause this type of discoloration are food, drinks, and tobacco. Staining foods and drinks like coffee, tea, red wine, berries, red sauces, and chocolate all have the power to stain your teeth.
Additionally, there’s large amounts of research that prove that smokers’ teeth are much more stained compared to those who don’t smoke.
Intrinsic
When there’s intrinsic discoloration, it means that there’s staining within your teeth. These types of stains are resistant to any kind of whitening treatments. Intrinsic discoloration can happen due to genetics, certain medications, tooth trauma, tooth decay, or too much fluoride.
Age-related
As you get older, the enamel on your teeth starts to wear away and can give your teeth a yellowish appearance. Age-related stains are typically a result of both extrinsic and intrinsic factors.
No matter what’s causing your teeth to become stained and discolored, our team has a treatment solution that can be right for you.
Teeth whitening options
Our team offers a wide variety of cosmetic dentistry services to help you achieve a beautiful and healthy-looking smile, with two of them being veneers and teeth whitening.
If your tooth discoloration is largely due to extrinsic staining, teeth whitening is probably the best way to go for you. We use medical-grade solutions in order to eradicate all that staining and reveal the white teeth underneath. While this option isn’t permanent, it can last up to six months.
On the other hand, if your staining is intrinsic, teeth whitening might be ineffective against this kind of discoloration. Veneers are custom-made porcelain shells that fit over your teeth and bond to them permanently to help you achieve your smile goals.
Next steps
If you’re ready to get your whitest smile yet, contact one of our four Ohio office locations by giving us a call or by using our online scheduler today.
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