Symptoms · stained or yellow teeth
Why are my teeth stained or yellow?
Teeth look yellow for two different reasons, and the difference decides what works. Surface staining from coffee, tea, red wine and smoking sits on the tooth and usually comes off with a clean or whitening. Colour from inside the tooth, including the natural yellow of dentine showing through thinning enamel, does not respond the same way. A check-up tells you which you have.
Is discoloured teeth ever urgent?
Go to hospital or call 000
- Facial swelling that is spreading, with fever or trouble swallowing
Call us today
- A single tooth that has darkened after a knock and is now painful
- A dark patch with a hole you can feel, or food packing into it
- Discolouration with a swollen gum or a pimple on the gum
Book the next available time
- Teeth that have yellowed gradually over years
- Staining from coffee, tea, red wine or smoking
- Teeth that look duller than they used to but feel fine
Surface stain, or colour inside the tooth?
This is the whole question, and almost every disappointment with whitening comes from getting it wrong.
Surface staining sits on the outside of the enamel and comes from what passes over it: coffee, tea, red wine, dark sauces, and smoking above all. It builds gradually, tends to be worse where teeth are crowded or where tartar has formed, and it responds well to a professional clean and to whitening.
Colour from inside is different. Enamel is slightly translucent and the layer underneath, dentine, is naturally yellow. As enamel thins with age, wear or acid, more of that yellow shows through. Some medicines taken while teeth were forming in childhood, and trauma to a particular tooth, also change colour from within.
Whitening can lighten some internal discolouration, but not all of it, and a tooth that is dark because of what happened inside it usually needs a different approach. A look at your teeth answers this in minutes, and it is worth answering before you spend anything.
What actually makes a difference?
- A professional clean removes tartar and surface stain. For a lot of people this is the whole answer, and they discover it costs less than they feared.
- Whitening lightens the tooth itself, in the chair or with a take-home kit. Our teeth whitening page covers who it suits.
- Cutting back the cause works better than people expect. Not giving things up, just rinsing with water after coffee or wine rather than letting it sit.
- Stopping smoking does more for tooth colour than any product, and rather more for your gums.
- Bonding or veneers where the colour will not shift. Composite bonding covers a specific tooth, and veneers change several.
What will not work, and is worth skipping
Charcoal products are abrasive, and abrasion is exactly the wrong approach when part of the problem is thinning enamel. Scrubbing harder with anything gritty makes teeth look more yellow over time, not less, because it wears away the translucent layer that was hiding the dentine.
The same goes for whitening strips bought without knowing which kind of discolouration you have. They are not dangerous used as directed, but people often end up disappointed because they were treating the wrong problem, and disappointed after spending money is a bad way to arrive at a dentist.
Acidic home remedies, including lemon juice and vinegar, do lighten stain briefly by etching the surface. They also dissolve enamel, which is permanent, and the yellow underneath shows through more afterwards.
Where to start
With a check-up and clean, and not because we would say that anyway. It removes the surface staining, which tells you how much of the colour was on the outside, and it tells you whether anything else is going on. Once that is known, the decision about whitening or anything further is a much easier one to make.
Principal dentist Dr Fatima Kurnaz, a general dentist rather than a registered specialist, reviews the clinical information on this page, and cosmetic dentistry sets out the options in order of how much tooth each one removes.
Other questions people ask
Will a clean make my teeth whiter?
It removes surface staining and tartar, so teeth often look noticeably brighter afterwards, but a clean does not change the underlying colour of the tooth. Many people find a clean is all they actually wanted.
Do whitening toothpastes work?
They work on surface staining, mildly, by being slightly abrasive or by using a mild chemical. They do not change the colour inside the tooth. The abrasive ones are worth using gently, because scrubbing thin enamel makes the underlying yellow more visible rather than less.
Why is one tooth darker than the others?
Usually because that tooth has been knocked at some point, or has had root canal treatment. It is a different problem from general yellowing and needs a different answer, which might be internal bleaching rather than ordinary whitening. Have it looked at rather than trying to whiten around it.
Will whitening work if I have fillings or crowns at the front?
Whitening changes natural tooth only. Existing fillings, crowns and veneers stay the colour they were made and can end up looking darker than the teeth around them. Where both are planned, the whitening is done first and the new work is matched to the result afterwards.
Are my teeth meant to be pure white?
No. Natural teeth are not the colour of a bathroom tile, and the shade people ask for is often brighter than any tooth naturally is. There is nothing wrong with wanting them lighter. It is just worth knowing what natural looks like before choosing a target.
Can staining be a sign of a problem?
Sometimes. A dark line or patch that is growing, rather than a general tea stain, can be decay. Staining that has appeared suddenly across several teeth is worth mentioning. That is a reason to have a look rather than a reason to worry.