Generally speaking, young and healthy teeth have bright, shiny, and white dental enamel. Unfortunately, teeth tend to become darker and duller as time goes by. Today, our Toluca Lake cosmetic dentists are going to be talking about how this aesthetic issue develops, and what you can do about it.
As the outermost layer of your tooth, the dental enamel is exposed to all of the foods, drinks, and tobacco products that you put in your mouth. This can lead to dental staining; richly colored foods and drinks leave color deposits on the tooth surface.
Additionally, because your enamel is exposed to harmful acids and sugars day after day, the very structure of your dental enamel can start to break down. As the outer layer of your tooth thins and wears away, the second dental layer—called the dentin—can begin to show through to the surface of your smile. Because dentin is somewhat yellow and dark, your whole smile can start to appear discolored.
Another cause of worn down teeth is bruxism, or chronic dental grinding. Bruxism puts immense pressure on teeth that touch one another when you bite. The enamel wears away slowly from tooth-on-tooth contact.
If you are unhappy with the appearance of function of your smile, our team can help. We may recommend you pursue:
- Professional Dental Whitening: this treatment option is so popular because it is non-invasive: our team will use a topical whitening gel to lighten your smile. Dental whitening delivers results right away, and it can be repeated throughout the year to achieve more dramatic results.
- Same-Day Dental Bonding: if you want to cover your enamel, or rebuild worn down portions of your teeth, then dental bonding may meet your needs. Dental bonding repairs and resurfaces smiles with custom-shaded composite resin. The resin is shaded, shaped, and cured in just one appointment.
- Customized Veneers: veneers are also designed to cover the existing tooth structure. Every veneer is individually crafted to coordinate with the patient’s natural dental shapes, sizes, and colors. Once the restoration is made, our team will permanently affix it over your enamel, and you can jump back into your normal routine.
We can’t always control how our smiles change with age, but we do have the ability to refresh our smiles using cosmetic and restorative dentistry. As always our Toluca Lake cosmetic dentists are here to give you all of the information you need to get started!