At Reflections Dental, yellowing tooth is a common type of tooth discoloration. Our patients would ask, “Do teeth yellow with age?”
Age is one of the reasons for tooth discoloration. The reason for this is that as you grow old, the tooth enamel starts to wear away. It causes your teeth to be more translucent. It also results in your dentin to be exposed.
Dentin is a material that comes with a yellowish color. Thus, if it is exposed, it causes your teeth to appear yellow. Now, as your enamel wears away continuously, your teeth produces more dentin. Because of that, it will make your teeth to appear darker than before.
There are several things that you can do to avoid tooth discoloration. As you stop your teeth from aging prematurely, you can allow your teeth to stay white for a lifetime.
Can Wine Cause Tooth Discoloration?
Wine, coffee, and tobacco could stain your teeth. But they only affect the external part of the tooth, which is the enamel. It is not alive. Thus, it is easy to whiten it.
But the more difficult part is to whiten the dentin. The reason for this is that dentin is a living tissue that ages, just like your skin. Thus, as your dentin ages, your teeth will appear yellowish. Then again, abuse could speed up its aging process.
Dentin is difficult to whiten. Sometimes, it is impossible to achieve dentin whitening. Since there is no procedure that can give your tooth a facelift, dentin aging can be irreversible.
How to Slow Down the Aging Process of Dentin?
One of the things you can do to slow down the aging process of your dentin, you must stop grinding your teeth. Clenching your teeth could put them under stress. The strong force can speed up the aging and shrinkage. Eventually, it will kill your tooth. The yellow tooth is the result of a premature aging tooth.
Poor health can also cause yellow teeth. The reason for this is that malnutrition could speed up the aging process of every living tissue in the body. And that includes the dentin. Thus, make sure to eat a balanced diet to avoid yellow teeth as a result of premature aging.
You should also consider wearing a bite guard when you are performing strenuous activity. The reason for this is that this kind of activity could cause you to get knocked hard. Keep in mind that when your tooth gets knocked hard, it would yellow faster. The affected tooth dies faster than others.
What Can You Do?
You must treat bruxism. As mentioned earlier, grinding could cause premature aging of the teeth. Thus, make sure to ask your dentist about how to treat your bruxism.
Then, make sure to protect your teeth from trauma. One way to do it is to wear a mouthguard.
The vital thing in preserving your teeth white is to keep your tooth’s health. Doing so will slow down its aging process, thereby, preventing it to turn yellow.
As you slow down the aging process of your tooth, you can prevent it from turning yellowish prematurely.