The most effective way to get whiter teeth is to have a professional dentist perform an in-office whitening treatment. There are several treatments that a dentist may recommend depending on your teeth and desired appearance. For example, you might undergo an in-office bleaching, laser or heat treatment.
What Can Be Done to Whiten Yellow Teeth? If you're looking for a radical change in the coloring of your teeth, you need professional-grade whitening to get the job done. Your cosmetic dentist can provide treatment that penetrates deep into the enamel and removes years of stains with a powerful bleaching agent.
Professional Teeth Whitening
In-office teeth whitening is often the best way to whiten brown teeth. Your dentist can determine the underlying cause of your brown teeth, and help you develop a treatment plan to whiten your teeth.
Brushing your teeth is meant to remove harmful bacteria and plaque but not to whiten them. As recommended by your dentist, brushing twice a day is vital because it prevents cavities and tooth decay. Brushing alone will not whiten your teeth, though, and even whitening toothpaste only has a minimal effect on your teeth.
For about two to six weeks, you can use dentist-recommended whitening toothpaste and brush twice a day. You can use a certified whitening mouthwash which usually takes about three months to produce visible results. Whitening strips are the most compelling in-house treatments that last up to six months.
These stains can usually be reversed with regular dental cleanings or by brushing your teeth using a toothpaste with whitening power. The stains come back, however, if plaque builds again or you continue to use the products that stained your teeth in the first place.
Consuming Certain Foods and Drinks. “Certain foods that are high in tannins, such as red wine, are potential causes of yellow teeth,” notes Crest. Other teeth-staining foods include coffee, citrus fruits and juices, soft drinks, teas, berries, tomato-based sauces, curry, balsamic vinegar, and soy sauce.
In most cases, the common cause for tooth discolouration is external staining as a result of drinking coffee, tea, or wine, or from smoking and other tobacco use.
If your teeth and gums aren't in the best shape or if you've had a lot of previous dental work, both issues can affect your results with traditional teeth whitening treatments. You won't be able to whiten either porcelain crowns or most commonly used dental bonding materials.
Many of the methods listed above can be effective for whitening your teeth, including oil pulling, using baking soda or hydrogen peroxide, eating a healthy diet, and limiting consumption of foods or beverages that stain teeth.
For example, scraping the brown spots from the teeth should only be done by a dental professional. If not done professionally, the scraping might even cause further damage to the tooth's enamel (and thereby introduce new sites for food debris and bacteria to accumulate).
The most common and effective ways to get a whiter smile, just like the celebrities, are not through at-home whitening treatments. In fact, they can often be a waste of money. Most celebrities opt for regular teeth whitening treatments or veneers. Below you will find more information about which one is right for you.
Tooth Decay
The decay is often the result of consuming excessive amounts of starchy and sugary foods or drinks. Plaque will accumulate and stick to the surface of teeth, damaging them over time. If not treated, this plaque may destroy a tooth's enamel and turn it brown.
Your dentist can also give you a take-home whitening kit. These kits contain a bleach that can remove deeper stains than the over the counter products found in stores, and may eventually return teeth to their naturally white shade.
Tooth Brushing Isn't Meant to Whiten Teeth
Brushing twice a day (or more if recommended by a dentist) is essential, as it removes plaque and prevents cavities. The bristle action of a toothbrush won't whiten teeth, though, and even whitening toothpastes can only have a limited effect on the surface of teeth.
Teeth that have yellowed with age
As we age, the enamel becomes thinner due to wear and tear, revealing the underlying layer of tooth structure called dentin. Dentin is naturally yellowish and cannot be lightened with teeth whitening products.
A home tooth-whitening kit contains carbamide peroxide, a bleach that can remove both deep and surface stains and actually changes your natural tooth color. If you have coffee-stained teeth, a tooth-bleaching kit can help. With some kits, you apply a peroxide-based gel (with a small brush) to the surface of your teeth.
Traditional whitening treatments do not work on porcelain or most cosmetic bonding materials. If you have porcelain veneers, dentures, crowns, or dental implants, or if you have undergone cosmetic bonding or have composite tooth-colored fillings, those teeth will not respond well to any whitening procedure.
Natural Enamel Thickness & Translucency
Enamel is on the surface of every tooth and it has a natural hue of white. However, the underlying dentin layer has a slightly yellowish color. This yellowish hue shows through the enamel in almost everyone, but more so for those with naturally thinner or more translucent enamel.
A good rule of thumb when determining how white your teeth should be is to look at the whites of your eyes. Whether whitening at home or undergoing treatment by a professional dentist, you should be aiming for a shade of white similar to that of your eyes.
They are actually covered by thin sheets of resin or porcelain called veneers. These tiny scale-like items can be used to reshape teeth, make crooked teeth look straight, or make naturally off-white teeth look impeccably white.
Tooth enamel does not grow back, but it can be restored to some degree by remineralization. Using mineralized toothpaste and mouthwash can strengthen your remaining enamel as the minerals will be drawn to the weak spots in your teeth and bond with the surface.
Baking soda is good for teeth whitening because it is a very mild abrasive, which helps remove stains from the surface of your teeth. In addition, baking soda is alkaline and salty, which helps lighten acid-based food stains – such as those from coffee, tea, and red wine – on teeth.
Even though you can't reverse enamel erosion and shouldn't whiten at home to reduce yellowing, you can still change the look of your smile. The dentist can bond a tooth-colored material to the damaged area to create a smooth, pearly white finish.
Brown spots on teeth can be an early warning sign of cavities, which require a dentist to fix. They may be accompanied by symptoms such as tooth pain, sensitivity, or bad breath. If tooth decay becomes severe, it may lead to gingivitis.