There’s a saying that one’s smile is their best feature.
However, while it is true that everyone looks amazing with a smile on, not everyone loves their smile.
Some people are too conscious to express their delight and would much rather find out how to get rid of teeth stains instead.
Everyone wants to have pearly whites because they just look better. Thus the nickname, making white teeth one of those beauty trends that never really go away.
If you’re stressing about your yellowish teeth, fret not. Read on and you might just learn everything you need to know to decide whether you should bleach your teeth or not.
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Understanding Why And How Your Teeth Get Stained
Before we look into the different techniques that can help you deal with discolored teeth, it’s important to look at the very root of it all. This way, you can completely address the concern by knowing which products and treatments can actually work for your issue.
Let’s start with what should really be the color of your teeth. Is it really supposed to be white or is having yellowish choppers a natural thing?
According to experts, the enamel or the hard outer surface of your teeth are naturally bluish white and slightly translucent. The dentin or the calcified tissue inside the enamel is naturally yellow which gives your teeth a yellowish appearance.
This means that your teeth will appear yellowish and not papery or even pearly white naturally.
So if your choppers are just slightly yellowish, you don’t have to worry about its health and integrity.
However, this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t worry about the appearance of your teeth. There are types of discolorations that are worth fussing about, whether it’s for your health or beauty purposes.
Your teeth can actually get stained and it can be caused by different things. It can be because of aging, injury, your diet, medications, illnesses or even oral hygiene.
Most of them are completely avoidable while others need to be addressed right away as it can be a sign of an ailment. Generally speaking, there are three types of teeth stains:
Intrinsic
As mentioned above, the dentin is already naturally yellowish so you can’t expect your ivories to sparkle right away. However, its color can become darker because of any of the following:
Extrinsic
As the name suggests, this is the type of teeth stain that affects the outer layer of your teeth or the enamel. It’s usually brought on by drinking dark colored beverages often, eating certain types of foods and smoking. Other products that get in contact with your teeth can also be to blame.
So if you love coffee, tea, berries, pasta, curry and dark cola, you can expect your teeth to become stained soon enough. Some mouthwash brands are also said to cause staining.
Poor hygiene is also a common reason why the enamel becomes stained. Plaque and tartar buildup can happen if you don’t take proper care of your teeth.
Age-related
Teeth stains that fall in this category are the result of the combination of intrinsic and extrinsic stains. As age causes dentin to become more yellow and enamel becomes thinner and more transparent with age, teeth stains can become more obvious as you get older.
Your diet and lifestyle can also catch up with your teeth over time. Accidents can also happen and stain your choppers.
While teeth stains often cause your choppers to appear darker, it’s also possible to get white stains in the form of dots on one’s teeth. Lots of people find it unsightly as it’s easily noticeable and highlights the discoloration of your pearly whites. It can be an intrinsic or extrinsic case so it’s important to see a dentist first before trying to address it.
Because there are different things that cause teeth discoloration, there are also many different ways how to get rid of teeth stains.
The methods in how to get rid of black stains on teeth will differ from how to get rid of coffee stains on teeth which is the very reason why you have to know exactly what has stained your ivories in the first place. If you use the wrong method, you might just not be able to deal with your problem at all.
Is It Safe to Get Rid of Teeth Stains?
Another very important thing to ask is whether it’s safe to get rid of stains on teeth or not. Since the teeth aren’t necessarily naturally white, some people ask whether it’s a good thing to change their color.
It’s a very valid concern because, as everyone would know, there are cases wherein changing the integrity and composition of a certain body part causes complications later on.
So is it alright to eliminate brown teeth stains? It appears like experts are saying that it’s generally safe. The American Dental Association notes that if you intend to bleach your teeth, you should turn to professionals instead to ensure your safety.
By doing this, a specialist can assess whether bleaching would be the best way to address your ivories’ discoloration. They can also supervise the appropriate treatment that the patient will get.
There are two general ways how to get rid of teeth stains. One would be, as mentioned above, through bleaching. The other is through the use of dentifrices which will physically or chemically remove the stains from your teeth. Both are generally safe to use with proper application.
Bleaching
Bleaching is done with the use of hydrogen peroxide which can have side effects. If the bleach touches your gums, it can result in an irritation. So to avoid that, it’s best to just let the specialists do their magic.
There are also some people who opt to have such treatments done by professionals because they use more potent solutions compared to OTC products. Commercially available teeth whiteners are formulated in a way that they won’t cause complications even during misapplication.
This makes them safer for inexperienced users. It also explains why such products take a while to show signs of improvement. Consider the best whitening mouthwash for a perfect smile and a fresh breath!
Dentifrices
Dentifrices are also formulated to be very gentle as they’re often made for home use. They work by polishing your teeth either through physical or chemical agents. However, because of this, they’re best used for extrinsic stains only. If your main concern is your darkened dentin, these products might not make a lot of difference for you.
It’s also crucial to stick with the best products if you want to remove coffee stains through this method. The enamel of your teeth can become thinner and get damaged if you don’t execute the teeth whitening steps involving these products properly.
Unlike the protective layers of your nails and hair, enamel doesn’t grow back so you have to be careful. Damaging your enamel can make your teeth more sensitive and prone to more serious issues.
At the end of the day, if you want to safely remove yellow teeth stains, you should make sure to do it properly. If you can’t guarantee that you can execute this task with great care, don’t fret.
Experts say that in some cases yellowish teeth can be healthier and stronger than bleached pearly whites. If you just want to keep your choppers in great shape, you might not even need to go all out and make the effort to whiten your ivories.
Most Effective Techniques To Get Rid Of Teeth Stains
After addressing all of the precautions and safety concerns over dealing with teeth discoloration, you might already be wondering how to get rid of stains on your teeth exactly?
There are a few different methods that you can try, either on your own, with natural ingredients or with the help of professionals. We’ve rounded up some of the most effective ones below.
Natural methods
These techniques make use of natural ingredients and items that you can either find at home or consume as is without the fear of serious complications. They’re considered as the safest methods to remove tea stains and other extrinsic discolorations on your teeth. However, caution is still strongly advised.
Brushing your teeth with all-natural toothpaste
One of the easiest techniques to get rid of various kinds of teeth stains is by brushing with various natural ingredients. Activated charcoal, baking soda and apple cider vinegar are just three of the most popular examples as they all tend to have abrasive and whitening properties.
Because of this, they can either remove the stained layer of enamel or whiten it by rubbing the ingredient in.
How do you use these ingredients to whiten your teeth? It’s actually very easy as you only have to use them as a substitute for your favorite toothpaste or mouthwash. If you want the details and actual how-tos, check them out below.
Activated Charcoal
- 1Wet your toothbrush well and place the activated charcoal on the bristles. As this ingredient is most commonly available in pill form, you can also opt to transfer the activated charcoal into a small container then dip your wet toothbrush in it to make things easier for you. This ingredient can get messy, so you might want to brush your teeth with it before putting on your going out clothes.
- 2Brush your teeth very gently for about 3 minutes. Some recommend doing it for up to 5 minutes but because this ingredient is very abrasive, you might want to tone it down a little to avoid enamel damage.
- 3Rinse well. It might take a while to take off the blackness this ingredient brings, so make sure to rinse well, especially if you’re going out after.
Note: There are lots of commercially available toothpaste products that boast of activated charcoal ingredients that you can get today. You can easily opt for them but they might not be as potent as a pill of activated charcoal.
So if you want the best results, it might be better to just stick with the black powder.
Baking Soda
- 1Mix half a teaspoon of baking soda with a drop of water, lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to make a paste.
- 2Apply the paste on your teeth with your finger or toothbrush. If you want to get rid of brown stains on your teeth, you might want to let it sit for about two minutes.
- 3Gently brush your teeth for two minutes. Do not go too hard on your teeth as doing so can damage your teeth enamel.
- 4Rinse well.
APPLE CIDER VINEGAR
As a tooth rub:
- 1Rub some apple cider vinegar directly to your teeth using a soft bristle brush or your finger.
- 2Rinse with water.
As a toothpaste:
See the baking soda instructions and use ACV instead of the lemon juice or water.
As a mouth rinse:
- 1Dilute one part of ACV in two parts of water and stir to combine.
- 2Gently swish the mix around your mouth for about a minute.
Note: Apple cider vinegar is highly acidic and can also damage the enamel of your teeth. It’s highly advised that you only use this whitening ingredient sparingly.
Oil pulling
This ancient Ayurvedic dental maintenance technique may sound like a complicated method but it’s actually quite simple to do.
All you need to do is just swish around coconut or safflower oil inside your mouth for twenty minutes every morning and that’s it. The oil is said to help clean your teeth and gums as well as whiten the teeth in the process by killing the bacteria inside your mouth.
The most challenging thing about this method is the actual oil swishing. Having a teaspoon to a tablespoon of oil inside your mouth can be gag-inducing so this can seriously be challenging. Some even find it nauseating to do, so in such cases, experts recommend doing it for five minutes instead of twenty.
Note, however, that this method hasn’t been studied extensively yet. So its recommendation is purely based on anecdotes.
A healthy diet
Certain food items are considered as natural detergents that can whiten your teeth as you eat them. Some have coarse textures that can easily rub against your teeth and remove the stains as you chew them. Others have natural components that help clean the mouth and dissolve the agents that can stain your teeth.
What are these food items that can help you get rid of teeth stains? Here's a quick list below that will help get rid of tea stains on your teeth:
- Apples
- Raw carrots
- Celery
- Popcorn
- Cauliflower
- Broccoli
- Cheese
- Yogurt
- Seeds and nuts
- Pineapple
- Onion
- Wine
Taking preventive measures
As they say, prevention is always better than cure, so you might also want to stay away from the very things that can stain your pearly whites. Here are some tips to get this done:
- If you can, skip having dark-colored drinks that are most usually the very cause of teeth stains.
- If you can’t ditch these beverages, you should at least use a straw to drink them. This way, your teeth won’t be saturated by the liquid.
- Brush your teeth after eating or drinking certain food items. This way, their components that can affect your tooth enamel can be removed from your teeth surface immediately.
- Stop smoking or chewing tobacco. If your black, brown or red teeth stains are from your tobacco consumption, stop the habit immediately. This may prove to be very challenging but if you absolutely want to safely whiten your teeth, you have to quit this habit right away.
Other DIY methods
Aside from using all-natural ingredients to whiten and remove stains from your teeth, you can also opt to use commercially available products to get the results you want.
This can prove to be more convenient to some folks as they don’t have to bother mixing stuff and sourcing ingredients beforehand.
Below are a few DIY techniques that you can try to get rid of yellow stains on teeth:
Regular brushing and flossing
Proper oral health maintenance can also help improve not just the well-being of your ivories but it can also help improve its appearance.
Regular brushing can effectively get rid of stains between teeth as it can quickly remove the staining agents before the teeth enamel absorbs their color.
How to get rid of stains between teeth? Make flossing a habit. Your toothbrush won’t be able to easily reach the space in between your teeth but flossing will. You might need to get used to the process, but it shouldn’t be too bothersome.
Besides, you only need to do it every time you brush your teeth. As the American Dental Association only recommends brushing twice a day, you don’t necessarily have to floss more than that.
If you find regular floss tricky, there are lots of alternatives that you can use. Water flossers are getting a lot of attention lately because they’re less wasteful than regular floss. They’re also quite handy to use. You can also opt to use plaque removers, dental picks and pre-threaded flossers.
Concealment
If you wear makeup, sometimes it’s our lip color that’s making your teeth look stained or yellowish. According to some beauty gurus, warm lip tones tend to highlight the warm tones that are on your teeth. So if you opt for such, your teeth will appear more stained or yellowish than it really is.
Cool-toned lip products are better recommended for those who want whiter teeth. Going for those with blue undertones can help your teeth appear whiter. However, you should still also consider your own skin tone so the lip color will look natural with your overall look. Balancing these things can be tricky but not impossible to do.
Teeth whitening kit
One of the best things about today’s technology is that we now have lots of different DIY teeth whitening kits to choose from. You don’t necessarily have to see a cosmetic dentist to get the job done if you found an effective product that you can use at home.
These products tend to use different techniques in addressing stained and yellowish teeth. Some promise to scrape off the discoloration from your choppers. There are others who are traditional bleaching agents that are formulated to be safe for you to use without a specialist’s supervision.
What’s really making waves right now is the variety that uses LED lights to whiten your teeth. The light in itself doesn’t do the whitening but it is said to stimulate the whitening agent’s ability to lighten the color of your choppers.
This is possibly one of the biggest beauty trends in the past couple of years as they tend to make people very curious.
It should be noted, however, that DIY kits aren’t for everyone. Some folks who already have sensitive teeth are recommended against their use as they can aggravate your condition.
Professional treatments
Want to rid of black teeth stains? Then your best bet is to see a dentist and get professional treatments. These cases tend to require special attention, so if you really want to get great results, you should consider these options:
Regular professional cleanings
If you don’t have a substantial budget for dental procedures that will help you remove your teeth stains, don’t worry. Regular dental cleanings can already suffice for some people to get rid of teeth stains due to their thoroughness.
In-office whitening procedure
This is the most popular professional teeth whitening procedure that offers guaranteed positive results. It’s also possibly the easiest since you only have to count on your dentist to get the job done.
However, there are still some stains that are resistant to this procedure, so if you’re seeing a professional for such purpose, you should make sure that they can address your dental woes.
Stains caused by injuries, antibiotic use during one’s childhood and overexposure to fluoride are just a few of the conditions that this procedure can’t treat.
Dental bleaches are often used for this procedure. They’re often way more potent than what you can get in kits, so they tend to offer faster results.
Veneers
If you’re wondering how to get rid of teeth stains instantly, getting veneers would be a solid option. Technically, it won’t get rid of teeth as it applies tooth-colored shells to your teeth. So instead of really removing the stains, it covers them up.
This allows you to achieve whiter and even better-aligned teeth right away. It will reshape your teeth for proper application so it’s considered a minimally invasive procedure.
How To Get Rid Of Teeth Stains, Answered!
With so many ways on how to get rid of teeth stains, you don’t really have to worry about your options. What you should focus on more is how you can achieve your desired results without damaging your choppers. It won’t be worth having a blinding smile if they are frail and you’re constantly in serious pain.
Most of the methods above are generally safe but will still require careful and precise execution. So no matter which method you choose to deal with your teeth stains, make sure to be very mindful in carrying them out.
We also recommend reading “Does Turmeric Whiten Teeth?“
Find it Difficult to Floss With Your Braces/Crowns/Bridges
A water flosser is great for all kinds of orthodontic appliances! Water goes where string floss cannot.
