Do you dream of beautiful, white teeth without pain? Unfortunately, the teeth change their color over time, and hypersensitivity causes great discomfort. Can you have white and healthy teeth at the same time?
As a child, we have beautiful white teeth. What causes their discoloration? Why do they lose their natural color? This is due to several factors.
- Food and drinks
There are many foods that color our teeth so strongly. Coffee, tea and red wine are the products that are most responsible for tooth discoloration. In their composition, these products contain pigments called chromogens that easily and firmly stick to the white enamel of our teeth.
- Smoking
Cigarettes in their composition contain two substances that cause extremely persistent discoloration. These are tar and nicotine. Tar is a naturally black color which causes the teeth of smokers to darken. Nicotine is colorless until combined with oxygen. Then it turns into a substance that causes yellowish spots.
- Age
Beneath the hard, white layer of enamel that covers our teeth is a softer layer called dentin. Over time, the enamel that covers our teeth wears off, thereby tearing off the dentin, which has a yellowish shade.
- Injuries
As a result of injuries, your teeth may take on a darker shade. This is because the natural defensive behavior of our teeth during stressful situations, i.e. as a result of an injury, is the increased production of dentin, which, as we mentioned, has a yellow tinge.
- Leki
Teeth may also change color as a result of medications used, e.g. antihistamines, antipsychotics or drugs for high blood pressure. In children, the use of certain antibiotics, including tetracycline or doxycycline, can cause unsightly dark discoloration that is extremely difficult (and sometimes impossible) to remove.
With age, apart from the fact that our teeth lose their natural white shade, we also suffer from tooth sensitivity more and more. It manifests itself in sharp and piercing pain, most often during activities such as brushing, brushing teeth with floss, eating and drinking very hot or cold, and sometimes also sweet products.
Why are teeth hypersensitive?
Exposure of a part of the tooth called dentin is responsible for tooth sensitivity. There are thousands of tiny tubules in this layer that lead straight to the nerve. And it is the stimuli – for example, heat or cold – that stimulate the nerves, as a result of which we experience severe pain.
There are several situations where the dentin is covering:
Grinding the enamel from the tooth surface and exposing the dentin. It happens when we have too hard a toothbrush, too hard and we scrub our teeth violently. The enamel can also be destroyed by biting the teeth too hard: microdamages also appear, which weaken the enamel and expose the dentin. If you bite your teeth very hard while sleeping, use special aligners
Gingivitis is another very serious factor that causes tooth sensitivity. During this disease, the so-called recession of the gums, i.e. lowering the level of the gums so that the dentin is exposed.
Interestingly, age also affects tooth sensitivity. At the age of 25-30 we suffer from hypersensitivity most often.
Watch out for food. Many acidic foods make hypersensitivity worse, such as citrus fruits and juices.
Teeth whitening treatments have been very popular recently. Unfortunately, any type of surgery, whether it’s performed at the dentist’s with highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide gels, or at home, using special plasters or overlays, results in pain, tooth sensitivity and gum irritation. Whitening hypersensitivity arises because the teeth dehydrate during the procedure, which means that there are too few water molecules in the tooth structure. Usually, these ailments pass quickly, but it also happens that convalescence takes weeks.
How to deal with hypersensitivity? And, despite the hypersensitivity, do we have a chance for white and healthy teeth?
There are several ways to deal with tooth sensitivity. Brush, floss and mouthwash regularly. Use the appropriate technique of brushing and flossing the teeth (the wrong technique may additionally irritate the gums, and too strong brushing damages the enamel). Remember to rinse your mouth with a special fluid at the end.
Use a soft bristle brush. Brush your teeth thoroughly but gently. You can ask your dentist to teach you how to brush your teeth properly.
Use toothpastes designed for sensitive teeth. There are different brands of toothpaste on the market and you need to find the best one for you. The good news for people who suffer from hypersensitivity and would like to have white teeth as well, is that there are toothpastes on the market that combine tooth whitening and work against hypersensitivity. Such pastes should be used regularly, some require massaging into the hypersensitive surface of the tooth and can be used to treat single tooth hypersensitivity. The toothpastes, which are intended for people with hypersensitive teeth, contain large amounts of fluoride, which is necessary to rebuild tooth enamel.