Tetracycline staining: many people have dark teeth, and this is mainly because, while their teeth were forming, they took a medication known as tetracyclines. Perhaps they did not take it themselves; perhaps it was their mothers who took the drug during pregnancy. Either way, the result is the same: very dark teeth that are difficult to whiten.
Tetracycline staining causes dark teeth that can look quite different from one person to another. We may treat very mild cases in which the enamel has a greyish tint, or far more severe cases in which the teeth are a very, very dark color. In both kinds of case, the patients have always lived with a strong sense of self-consciousness. Sometimes they have looked for a solution to their problem without finding one; other times they have simply resigned themselves to the state of their teeth, thinking there was no way to have a whiter, more beautiful smile.
As well as the cases where the teeth are greyish and those where they are darker, there are cases in which tetracyclines have darkened the teeth in such a way that they show bands of different colors. In these cases we always warn our patients that whitening is possible, but the result will vary from area to area. That means the whiter areas will look lighter than the areas at the neck of the tooth, which will be darker.
In the photographs above you can see that the patient had brown and gray staining. As a treatment plan we suggested changing the color very slowly until it was stable, which lightened the shade very visibly. The base of his teeth is still a greyer tone, but we have lightened the shade as far as possible, giving the smile far more light and brightness.
It is very rewarding for us when a patient comes to ask our advice thinking nothing can be done about the color of their teeth and, with a whitening treatment, we manage to give them back a white, beautiful smile. 🙂
