Having yellow teeth can not only be embarrassing at times but also harm your self-esteem.

It might make you conscious of your teeth whenever you feel the urge to flash your smile. The first step in getting rid of this ugly yellow tinge is to determine the cause of it.

Yellow Teeth Causes

• Natural: Some individual’s teeth are naturally yellow in color. This is no defect as not all of us are lucky enough to have naturally white teeth. Here is the detailed reason for this natural yellow color. The outer most covering of the teeth (enamel) is white.However, the layer below this, which is the dentin, is naturally yellow. In some conditions, the outermost layer is not well mineralized causing it to become translucent. This makes the color of the dentin (yellow) more apparent and you can’t change this natural tooth color unless you use advanced whitening methods.

• Aging: You have to accept the fact that yellowing of teeth is also a natural aspect of aging. However careful you might have been in maintaining your oral hygiene, over a long period of time staining agents generally seep in to your teeth giving it a yellowish tinge. Also, the enamel wears down and the natural yellow color of the underlying layer (dentin) becomes visible.

• Oral hygiene: Poor Oral hygiene is a major cause of yellow teeth colour. You could say “yellow teeth can have various causes” but poor oral hygiene ALWAYS result in yellow teeth(along with a lot of other dental problems)

• Food Habits: The chromogenic (COLOUR IMPARTING) food and beverages we consume can be held responsible for a vast majority of tooth discolorations. Foods such as tea, coffee, soda and berries have colour imparting properties. Smoking and chewing tobacco causes stained teeth as well due to nicotine deposits on teeth.

Yellow Teeth Treatment:

Although we can try our best to control the yellowing of our teeth by simple methods, sometimes it’s just not possible and we have to look towards more advanced methods.

Simple Methods:

• Brush and Floss twice a day.
• Brushing after consuming color imparting agents like coffee, tea, soda etc
• Using Whitening toothpaste and chewing sugarless whitening gums.
• Using Whitening strips or paint on bleach.

Advanced Methods

• Using Dental Veneers.
• Using various tooth whitening methods especially the in-office tooth bleaching.