Root Canal — The Road to Pain Relief
Each year in the United States, about 15 million root canal procedures are performed, helping millions to find much-needed relief from pain and, perhaps more importantly, help them hold onto their teeth.
Help! My Teeth are Yellow
It’s no secret that a winning smile is one that’s backed by bright teeth, so you do your best to keep your pearly whites, well, white. Despite your efforts through daily care, yellowing begins to creep in, leaving you with a lackluster smile that doesn’t dazzle as it once did.
At Peninsula Dental Excellence, our team of highly skilled dental experts, led by Drs. Jeff Yoshihara and Colin Au, understands the many forces that can rob your teeth of their once-white brilliance.
In the following, we explore why your teeth may be yellowing and a few of the ways we can help you smile again with confidence.
Behind the yellow
There are several culprits behind yellowing teeth, including:
Aging
Your teeth are protected by enamel, which is what gives them their white color. Over time, your enamel can begin to wear down, allowing the yellow/brown dentin inside to slowly show through.
Extrinsic staining
While aging is the primary culprit behind yellowing teeth, staining from the outside can also lead to discoloration. Foods and drinks with artificial dyes, coffee, tea, wine, and smoking can all leave their marks on your teeth, creating discolorations that no amount of brushing seems to clear away.
Medications
Certain medications can also cause your teeth to take on a yellow hue, including tetracycline, doxycycline, and minocycline. Outside of antibiotics, antihistamines, antipsychotics, and some blood pressure medications can lead to yellowing in your teeth. As well, certain chemotherapy medications and radiation treatments can discolor your teeth.
No matter how your teeth got to the point where they’re more yellow than white, the good news is that we can help.
Restoring your white teeth
One of the first lines of defense for restoring your pearly whites are our professional teeth whitening services. If you want to whiten your teeth by several shades in just one visit, we apply a powerful bleaching solution to your teeth and then use a special UV light to activate the whitening. This quick-and-easy process allows you to walk out with whiter teeth that same day.
If you’d prefer a more gradual approach to teeth whitening, you can try our at-home whitening system. With this approach, we supply you with trays that you fill with a special whitening agent and place over your teeth every day for 2-10 hours at a time. Over the course of 2-3 weeks, your teeth will gradually whiten and brighten.
If your teeth resist these whitening efforts, you may want to consider dental veneers, a procedure in which we place thin “shells” over the fronts of your teeth. With veneers, we can not only brighten your smile, we can also cover up minor imperfections in your teeth.
The bottom line is that if your teeth are yellowing, rest assured that we have a solution. To get started, contact our office in Mountain View, California, to set up your appointment.
You Might Also Enjoy...
Tooth-Colored Fillings — Checking All the Boxes
Fillings have long been one of the most valuable workhorses in dentistry, but our ability to make them blend seamlessly into your mouth raised the bar even higher. Here’s why tooth-colored fillings excel in so many areas.
My Gums Are Bleeding — Should I Be Concerned?
Seeing blood when you’re doing something as harmless as brushing your teeth can be disconcerting. But it can also be a wake-up call. Here’s a look at when you should be concerned about bleeding gums.
The Truth About Mouthwash
You’re anxious to do the best you can to take care of your teeth and gums at home, but you’re unsure where mouthwash fits in and whether it’s even necessary. Here are some points to consider.
Are Dental Implants Always Better Than Bridges?
You’re missing a tooth or two and want to explore your replacement options. While dental implants have certainly taken restorative dentistry by storm, other options exist, including the tried-and-true dental bridge.
5 Telltale Signs of a Dental Emergency
Maybe you’re used to just toughing things out, or you’re not sure what constitutes a medical emergency when it comes to your teeth and gums. To help, here are five signs that you could really benefit from expert dental care.