Your ideal smile is likely a row of white, immaculate teeth. You’re not alone, as teeth whitening solutions are one of the most requested dental services nationwide. Food, drink, and daily living can add up to stains on your teeth, which also tend to yellow with age. Lighter dental enamel thins, allowing darker-colored dentin below the surface to dull down your teeth’s appearance.
However, sometimes there are discolorations for reasons other than food and beverage stains. Perhaps the most common issue is spots that are actually lighter than the rest of a tooth. This can happen for several reasons, but no matter which, it creates a problem if you value even appearance. There’s now a treatment process that addresses not only the appearance of these discolorations, but in some cases also interrupts the underlying cause of white spots on your teeth.
Causes of tooth discoloration
It’s easy to think of your teeth as permanent fixtures, given their strength and hardness. However, like other body tissue, your teeth change. The environmental conditions to which they and your body are subjected can leave behind signs.
When your diet is unbalanced, the outer enamel layer of your teeth can degrade over time. As we’ve seen, weak enamel can allow the underlying layer to show through, and it may also experience weak spots that show up white. This leads to demineralization, and white spots are a common symptom.
Too much of a good thing is also a problem when that good thing is fluoride. In the right concentration, fluoride bolsters tooth enamel, but excessive amounts cause fluorosis and, you guessed it, white spots. Discoloration is also sometimes a side effect of orthodontic treatment, particularly when bands are in place over a long period.
Early signs of tooth decay can also create white spots from mineral loss. Before a cavity fully develops, a light spot reveals the weakness that’s confirmed with dental X-rays. In some cases, your white spots could simply be genetic.
How the Icon method fixes discoloration
Your body does address weak spots in tooth enamel, remineralizing your teeth through substances in your saliva. As you might expect, this is a slow process, and often demineralization occurs faster than new enamel can form. Once a cavity forms, though, there’s no hope for remineralization fixing the problem.
Icon addresses weak spots in your teeth using a two-step process. First, the area surrounding your tooth discoloration is etched. This opens the porous part of your tooth enamel. Once the tooth is prepared, Icon resin is added and absorbed into the tooth enamel, sealing the pores and rebuilding the tooth at the demineralization site.
Not only does the resin fill in the etching, it returns the discolored spot to an even, natural appearance. Icon resin uses light curing to harden, as many contemporary dental restorative techniques do.
If you have spots discoloring your teeth, now is the time to contact Meadowbrook Dental Care to find out if you’re a candidate for the Icon process. There’s no needle and no drilling. It’s a painless process performed in a single appointment. Call or click today.