The color of your teeth can be critical to your confidence in your smile. If your teeth look stained, or if they seem to have lost their luster, it can adversely affect your self-esteem. Professional whitening is available from your dentist, and can restore a more vivid color to your teeth. For people with discoloration that is less responsive to the bleaching agents in whitening treatments, alternative cosmetic procedures can also help. While there is no single universal cause for changes in your teeth color, certain factors can be more likely to cause discoloration.

Smoking And Chewing Tobacco

Smoking and chewing tobacco can stain your teeth, and give them a yellowish hue. Tobacco can also increase your risk for gum disease, and oral cancer.

Aging

Your enamel can become thinner as you get older, and more of the dentin layer underneath can start to show. Because dentin is darker, it can dull the color of your teeth. During routine dental appointments, your dentist can examine the state of your enamel.

Physical Injury To A Tooth

In some cases, a tooth will react to a physical injury by creating more dentin. This increase in dentin can make the tooth look dull. Having a single off-color tooth can throw off the harmony of your smile. While bleaching agents are able to remove enamel stains, it is not effective against this type of discoloration. If you have a tooth with a flawed appearance after an injury, dental bonding can restore it, so that it matches surrounding teeth.