4 Tips for Whiter Teeth And Smile

Some of the most common smile insecurities include:

Discolouration

Staining

Crooked teeth

Gaps in the smile

Overbite or underbite

Often the simplest way to upgrade your smile and feel more confident is by addressing discolouration, stains and tartar build up. This can happen naturally as we get older and can also be the result of staining from food and drink choices.

Thankfully, you don’t have to live with stains and discoloured teeth. If you are looking to bring back your natural sparkle to your teeth, why not consider our four top tips to get a whiter smile.

1. Attend regular appointments with our hygienist

A healthy smile is a key factor in determining how we interact with other people and their opinions of us.

Alongside your at home oral hygiene routine, you should attend for regular scaling and polishing appointments with the hygienist. At your appointment the hygienist will hand and ultrasonic scale our teeth.

This will help to remove staining which happens as a natural part of ageing and due to food and drink we consume as part of our everyday diet including our consumption of tea, coffee, red wine and smoking.

You can also access AirFlow polishing, which provides the same scale and polishing treatment without the need for sharp instruments touching your teeth. Instead, this system uses a high pressure stream of air, water and fine particles.

This helps to gently buff away stains and deposits, leaving you with a brighter smile and increased confidence. It also leaves you with fresh breath, as all traces of bacteria will be removed from your teeth and gum line.

2. Avoid common staining foods

Looking to ensure that your smile stays bright and white, you may want to consider the foods and drinks you consume on a daily basis and their ability to stain your pearly whites.

Wine – Red wine contains tannins, most commonly associated with tea. This means it has the potential to cause a large amount of staining on your teeth. To reduce the effects, follow each glass of wine with a glass of water. This will not only reduce the level of staining it will also help to reduce the hangover the following day!

Tea – Something you may not realise is that tea can cause a higher level of staining than coffee due to the high levels of tannins present. Why not consider switching to a herbal, green or white tea which have all been shown to have much lower potential for staining.

Fizzy drinks – Dark coloured fizzy drinks can cause staining because of their colour. However lighter coloured fizzy drinks are sufficiently acidic that they promote the staining of teeth by other foods you may have at the same time.

Dark sauces – Soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and tomato sauces can have a detrimental effect on the brightness of your smile. . One way to avoid staining is to eat lettuce, spinach or broccoli at the start of your meal, these vegetables form a protective film over teeth so that foods that stain cannot seep into your teeth’s pores.

3. Follow a good oral care routine

One of the best ways to care for your teeth is to brush your teeth twice a day using a fluoride toothpaste. Most people will brush in the morning and then before they go to bed. The following tips can also help to improve your oral care routine:

Eating and drinking naturally weakens the enamel on your teeth, and brushing straight afterwards can cause tiny particles of enamel to be brushed away. For this reason, it’s best not to brush your teeth until at least one hour after eating.

Change your toothbrush every season -Toothbrushes should be changed every 3-4 months and this will ensure that you are getting the most effective clean possible when you brush your teeth.

Clean in between your teeth once a day - use interdental aids such as interdental brushes, floss or tape. This ensures that you reach the 40% of tooth surfaces which bushing misses.

Eat a balanced and varied diet - A wide variety of fruit and vegetables in your diet help to ensure you get all the vitamins and minerals you need and help keep your teeth and gums healthy.

Stop smoking - One of the effects of smoking is staining on the teeth due to the nicotine and tar in the tobacco. It can make your teeth yellow in a very short time, and heavy smokers often complain that their teeth are almost brown after years of smoking. Consider stopping smoking to help improve the whiteness of your teeth

4. Professional teeth whitening

Tooth whitening allows you to lighten the natural colour of your teeth without damaging the tooth itself.

In 2012, regulations were introduced stating that tooth whitening is a dental procedure and as such should only be carried out by a qualified dental professional. Dentists are also able to use whitening solutions with a maximum strength of 6% hydrogen peroxide whereas over the counter products can only contain 0.1% hydrogen peroxide. This would be considered too low to have any noticeable effect on the colour of your teeth. So if you are looking for a safe and effective way to whiten your teeth consider asking your dentist at your next appointment.

There are two main types of tooth whitening available:

In-chair teeth whitening - In this instance, the whitening solution will either be painted onto your teeth or loaded into custom made bleaching trays and then a special light will be shone onto the teeth to help activate the bleaching solution. The treatment will normally take around an hour and during this time the procedure may be repeated with fresh solution two or three times.

At-home teeth whitening - In this instance the dentist will make custom made whitening trays by taking impressions of your teeth. You will then be given a whitening solution to put into the trays and wear them at home. You will need to wear the trays for anywhere from 30 minutes to sleeping in them for 8 hours overnight depending on the solution that the dentist uses and how quickly you would like to see results. Normally we would advise that treatment will take between 3-4 weeks to get the desired results.

It is normally advised that following a course of in chair tooth whitening you follow it up with a course of at home tooth whitening. This will ensure that you get the best possible results. Tooth whitening would be expected to last approximately 3 years before you would need a top up treatment. However this will depend on lifestyle factors such as your diet, whether you smoke and medications that you take.

Teeth whitening isn’t permanent, and the stains will return if you continue to eat and drink items that are known to discolour your teeth.

Final thoughts on achieving a whiter smile

A whiter smile might not seem like much of a change, but you’ll be surprised by how much it can boost your confidence. We also find that patients who invest in their smile with cosmetic treatments like teeth whitening will also take much better care of their oral health in general.

This is for the simple reason that if you have invested in your smile, you want to keep it healthy as well as beautiful. If you’re not sure which teeth whitening system is right for you, we can help you make the right choice.

During your initial consultation, we will examine the current condition of your teeth and offer recommendations based on factors such as your lifestyle and your goals. If you have a deadline in mind, such as a special occasion, we can also take this into consideration.

Call today on 01702 557766 to book your consultation to find out how the team at Benfleet Dental Centre can help you get whiter teeth.