Have you ever noticed white spots or flecks on the enamel of your front teeth? What are they? How did they get there? And is there a way that you can treat them? You can find out more from our dentist in Thorpe Bay.
The good news
The good news is that these flecks are unlikely to be a hazard of any kind. There are several causes of them, from you getting too much fluoride in your diet, stress or trauma, or from biting down hard. Also, a minor case of decalcification either relating to a diet low in calcium or a by-product of pregnancy as the body has diverted all of its calcium to the developing foetus, can also be a cause.
The bad news
The bad news is that, much like a dark ring in a growing tree from a season that was high in pollution once, these marks are on your teeth. They will not be resolved by a change in diet or lifestyle. The similar white marks which appear in growing fingernails will eventually be grown out, but unfortunately teeth do not work that way and thus, we will need to treat them if they are too much of a cosmetic hindrance.
The treatment options
There is a misconception that these white spots can be treated using tooth whitening or stain removing products. Unfortunately this simply would not help; the abrasion techniques rely on removing stains or debris which is attached to the front of your teeth, making them look darker like tartar. These marks are not on the outside of your teeth but are actually integrated into the enamel.
Many bleaching techniques use peroxide, these lighten the teeth in general, but also lighten the white marks. Lightening your teeth all the way to the pure white necessary to hide them would result in a very artificial looking smile.
Dental clinics will leave you with the options of veneers in order to cover up the white spots or drilling out these spots, replacing them with a white filling. We consider that both of these techniques unnecessarily disrupt teeth and we are a dentist in Thorpe Bay who has made the necessary investments to provide treatment using chemical infiltration.
During chemical infiltration, a product is applied either directly to the teeth or via a bleaching tray which penetrates deeply into the enamel where it disperses the white spots by allowing them to diffuse across the tooth enamel surface, thus blending them out! Making them less obvious and with long enough treatment, they are fully blended into the tooth rendering them no longer visible.
Resolving the white spots once and for all without the need for any enamel to be removed can be tricky. It will not help address the causes of the white spots and you should still make the necessary lifestyle changes in order to stop them from reoccurring, but at least we now have a solution to any that you may have picked up during your lifetime. If you know of anybody who suffers from dental white spots and would be interested in infiltration treatment, please feel free to get in contact with the clinic or point them in the direction of our dentist in Thorpe Bay.
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