Why teeth blacken in adults and children inside and out, what to do

Blackening of tooth enamel is rarely accompanied by pain, but causes serious concern. Typically, patient experiences are associated with a non-aesthetic smile, especially when dark spots appear on the front teeth.

There are several reasons for darkening of enamel, each requires competent treatment under the supervision of a dentist. Immediate dental treatment is necessary if the tooth turns black inside. This phenomenon indicates the development of infection in the dentin and tooth roots.

Why do teeth blacken in adults inside and out

The color of the teeth depends on the quality of oral hygiene, diet, the presence of chronic diseases, bad habits and lifestyle. The cause of the development of pathology can be determined by the nature and localization of the darkening.

Darkening of tooth enamel on the outside in most cases is manifested as a result of insufficiently careful oral hygiene, the use of coloring products and abuse of bad habits. From the inside, the tooth may darken against the background of systemic failures in the body or internal diseases.

Low quality oral hygiene

The main reason that healthy teeth in adults darken is the lack of good oral hygiene. Too fast, irregular or insufficiently thorough brushing of teeth, poor-quality cleaning of internal tooth surfaces and interdental spaces leads to the accumulation of plaque.

Initially, the coating is soft, yellowish. It can be easily removed at home, fully cleaning the tooth surface twice a day. Over time, the plaque becomes denser and darker. Hard dental deposits can only be removed with professional cleaning.

Food colors and natural pigments

Strong black tea, coffee, beets, red wine, red and black berries have the most intense coloring effect. Their pigments penetrate the natural coating, giving it a dark shade. The pigmented soft coating hardens and is converted to tartar.

Caries

The main reason why internal teeth blacken in adults is a deep carious lesion, in which the affected internal tissues of dentin and pulp are visible through a thin wall of enamel. In the early stages of the disease, small dark patches appear on the enamel, over time, the lesion reaches the dentinal layer and leads to decay of the tooth from the inside.

With tooth decay, the tooth can not only turn black, but also hurt. The only way to eliminate the defect is a professional dental treatment in a clinic.

Long-term use of antibiotics

Teeth may turn black after prolonged use of tetracycline antibiotics. If the enamel darkens after taking Tetracycline, it will not work to restore its color with whitening and professional cleaning - complex therapy is necessary.

Systemic and chronic diseases

The cause of blackening of the teeth can be diseases accompanied by metabolic disorders, the functioning of the liver and spleen, as well as a change in the acid-base balance in the body.

Most often, the teeth blacken from the inside with diabetes, kidney and liver diseases, gastritis, serious viral infections, abscesses and progressive anemia.

Injuries

Shocks and bruises often lead to injuries to the root canals and the neurovascular bundle, which is why insufficient amounts of nutrients enter the hard tissues of the teeth. At first, the enamel fades, and then begins to darken. The tooth begins to hurt immediately after injury. The same mechanism for changing the shade of enamel is observed when patients undergo tooth depulpation.

Bad habits

Smoking leads to blackening of enamel due to the fact that tobacco contains nicotine and resins that intensely stain the tooth surface, especially the interdental spaces. In heavy smokers, the general tone of the enamel darkens, a dense brown-black coating appears at the roots on the inside of the dentition.

A drug addiction is fraught with systemic destruction of the body by toxic components, due to which the teeth quickly darken, begin to crumble and loosen. If you do not stop the entry of poisons into the body, they will begin to fall out.

Of alcoholic drinks, the risk for enamel is only red wine containing natural dyes, which makes it darker.

Continuous regular contact with heavy metals

When processing heavy metals, condensation forms, which settles on the mucous membrane of the oral cavity and causes the appearance of a characteristic black coating. Most often, working with metal blackens the teeth of workers in metallurgical and chemical enterprises.

Why can a child blacken teeth

The list of reasons why children's teeth darken is somewhat different from why adults darken teeth. The most common prerequisites for darkening children's enamel include:

• Fluorosis The disease is associated with an excess of fluoride in drinking water and is the most common reason why teeth blacken in children and some adults. Fluorosis can be detected by a characteristic lesion of enamel - it becomes covered with light and dark spots.
• Poor nutrition. Plaque on the teeth in children is formed not only due to insufficient oral hygiene, but also because of an improperly prepared diet, including a large number of industrial sweets and carbonated drinks with a high sugar content.
• Early caries. A feature of the development of caries on milk incisors, canines and molars is its swiftness: before the tooth begins to hurt, a carious lesion can destroy most of it.
• Mother taking antibiotics during pregnancy.
• Metabolic disease.
• Dysbacteriosis
• Genetic predisposition.

What to do if teeth are blackened inside or out

Therapy is prescribed depending on why the teeth darkened. If the teeth have darkened due to poor quality oral hygiene, smoking or an improper diet, the doctor will prescribe a professional brushing for the patient, which will return the original color of the enamel.

After the procedure, you need to maintain the cleanliness of the oral cavity by regularly cleaning the enamel twice with a brush and paste, which the doctor will individually select. The dentist will demonstrate to the patient the correct cleaning technique, in which the plaque will be qualitatively removed not only from the front incisors, but also from distant molars. After each meal, you need to use rinses that restore acid-base balance in the oral cavity.

If the tooth is blackened from the inside, you will have to do an x-ray so that the doctor can exclude the inflammatory process in the pulp and prescribe an adequate treatment. Darkening inside the tooth caused by untreated caries or injury to the neurovascular bundle is eliminated by removing the affected tissue and then filling the crown and roots.

If the tooth has darkened inside due to common diseases or prolonged use of medications, conservative therapy is prescribed. In case of its inefficiency, the dentist may suggest making special dental overlays, their use when darkening the front teeth in the smile zone is especially important.