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Question:
Stubborn yellow tooth stain due to early trauma: When I was a child I knocked one of my baby teeth into my gums as my adult teeth were developing, resulting in staining of my adult tooth.
I now have one front tooth which is stained a yellowish color and when I use whitening toothpaste only my other teeth whiten.
I am afraid to use a whitening compound due to it only staining my other teeth, with the stained tooth remaining yellow. If I were to receive a professional whitening or if I were to use a product such as whitestrips, would my stained tooth become white? ...Visitor from Ontario Canada
Answer:
Due to the trauma of your "primary" (baby) tooth being pushed up into your jaw, it probably caused permanent staining of one of your adult front teeth. If you continue to use whitening products, it will only make this tooth appear darker.
Solution: seek out the advice of a good cosmetic dentist in your area.
In my practice when faced with this cosmetic problem, we have our patients professionally whiten their teeth with either an in-office one hour whitening treatment followed by home whitening trays. The second way to get a great whitening result is to have custom whitening trays made by a dentist.
The patient then uses the concentrated whitening gel, not available in stores, to whiten their teeth 45 minutes a day for two to three weeks. Once the teeth are as white as they are going to get, we wait to take a final shade of the lightened teeth for future cosmetic restorations. We wait about one month because there is always some relapse of the final white shade.
Thus, once the teeth color has settled out, the teeth are now stable enough to use to match a planned porcelain veneer or porcelain crown. Since natural teeth will tend to darken slightly due to the foods and drinks we consume over time, the porcelain restoration will act as the patient's shade guide.
The patient only has to use a whitening tray to "tweak" the shade a day or so to return to the shade of their porcelain restoration. Patient's need to be cautioned not to become addicted to whtening their teeth, as sometimes the teeth can become too light and translucent. Whitening products need to be used sparingly and with moderation.
Since matching a single upper anterior tooth is one of the hardest things to do in dentistry, I highly recommend seeing an experienced cosmetic dentist who is skilled in color matching.
It is hard for me to suggest the best option for you over the Internet, but it sounds to me that the type of internal tooth staining you describe will not lighten to your satisfaction with whitening products alone. Your tooth will most likley benefit from a well fabricated porcelain veener or crown after you have achieved the whitening shade you are hasppy with.
ComfortableDental.com
Ron Briglia, DMD
Chester County Medical Building
600 East Marshall Street, Suite 201
West Chester PA 19380
(610) 692-4440
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