There are a few factors that can make your teeth darkened, such as taking some medications, treating a canal, ingesting some food and drinks, or bumping into them resulting from an accident, for example.
This problem can be solved with a simple treatment, however it depends on its cause, and may consist of a tooth whitening or a restoration of the tooth, for example.
What causes
The darkened tooth may be caused by the following factors:
- Trauma in the tooth, during sports, after a fall, after a stroke or a car accident for example;
- Ingestion of foods and drinks with pigments that darken the tooth like tea, coffee, wine, red fruits or curries for example;
- Treatment of canal, in which the pulp is removed from the tooth. Here's how this treatment is done;
- Medicines such as tetracyclines, if taken by the mother during pregnancy or by children under 8 years of age.
In addition, as the person grows older, they may get darker teeth due to the loss of tooth minerals.
How is the treatment done?
The treatment of the darkened tooth depends on the cause of the problem, because in some cases, some techniques may not be effective enough.
In case the tooth is stained by pigments contained in food and beverages, this coloring can be easily removed with a dental cleaning done at the dentist. To improve results, brush the teeth with a suitable toothpaste, floss regularly, and rinse with water or an elixir every time after a meal to eliminate the pigments contained in food.
1. Dental bleaching
If stains caused by food and beverage pigments persist, you can choose to do an external dental bleaching in a doctor's office or at home, with the help of drips.
External tooth whitening is generally not effective if a tooth trauma has occurred or if a canal treatment has been done, because in these cases necrosis of the dental pulp may have occurred. In these cases, one may choose to perform internal bleaching.
Both external and internal whitening are not effective in staining caused by the ingestion of tetracyclines.
2. Resin restorations
In the event of trauma, canal treatment or tetracycline uptake that has caused the tooth to darken, facets of resin may be applied to the teeth and then external bleaching to improve results.
3. Porcelain restorations
However, if the teeth are too dark, they should not be covered with resin veneers because they will not be enough to mask the color of the tooth. In these cases one can opt for the placement of dental veneers in porcelain.
