Why White Teeth Aren’t Necessarily Healthy Teeth

When dentists take a look at a patient’s smile, they look for all kinds of subtle signs to pick up on the state of their oral health. However, the average person really just looks at a few key things.

One of the main ways most people judge their oral health is through the color of their smile; the whiter their teeth, the better they tend to feel about them. However, the color of your smile isn’t necessary a 1-to-1 corollary to the quality of your teeth, especially if you’ve whitened your teeth artificially in the past. Here’s why that’s the case.

What Can White Teeth Hide?

Even if your teeth look good from the outside, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re perfectly healthy on the inside. For one, you may be dealing with cavities in places that you can’t see, like in between the teeth. These are especially hard to detect in the back of the mouth, where it’s tough to see anyway.

Then there’s problems with the gums. Even if you have a white smile, inflamed gums could indicate bacterial infection that may be serious.

Bad Whitening, Bad Teeth

Not only are there issues you could be missing if you are solely focusing on the quality of your smile, but whitening treatment itself may potentially cause oral health problems that could bother you. While whitening done by a trained professional is completely safe, there are a myriad of DIY whitening kits that are substantially riskier.

They’re often much less effective than the kinds of treatments that you’d get from a dentist. As a consequence, patients tend to overuse them in an effort to get the perfectly white smile that they’ve always dreamed of. This can cause profoundly sensitive teeth.

You might have also had cavities when you first began whitening treatment, causing the interior of your tooth to become irritated.

Even if you wind up with a white smile, your teeth will feel considerably worse than they did before. For that reason, if you’re interested in getting a white smile, you should be sure to talk to a professional about it. They can give you beautiful teeth and keep you healthy.

About the Author

Dr. Mark Stapleton has helped thousands of patients to improve their oral health over the last twenty years, and when he looks back on that time, the thing that satisfies him most is remembering the deep relationships that he’s formed with them. Dr. Stapleton received his dental degree from the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry. He then completed his Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency at the University of Florida College of Dentistry.

If you have any questions about how to get a healthy and beautiful smile, we can be reached at our website or by phone at (952) 448-2868.