Sometimes a grandchild says it first: “Why are your teeth yellow?” Or brown, or so short. Kids don’t soften it.
We hear about questions like that in the chair, usually followed by “I figured it was just getting older.” Some of it is. Teeth do change with age. But most of what people notice has a specific cause, and a cause can usually be slowed, fixed, or at least explained.
Here’s what each change usually means, in the words people use for it, with a link to the full answer.
Occasionally it’s one problem with one fix. More often, the problems are stacked. A little wear, a few chips, an old crown failing at the edge, gums pulling back. Fixing the one that bothers you most doesn’t touch the others, which is why we look at the whole mouth first.
“Why are my teeth turning yellow or brown?”
Three different things get called yellow teeth, and they look alike in a mirror. Surface stain from coffee, tea, wine or tobacco bleaches well. Color inside the tooth, including the natural darkening of dentin with age, sometimes does. And thinning enamel isn’t a color change at all: the enamel has worn thin and the darker dentin underneath is showing through. No amount of bleaching moves that one.
Yellow right at the gum line is often not enamel either. Where the gums have pulled back, you’re seeing root surface, which is naturally darker. And crowns, veneers and fillings don’t bleach at all; they stay the shade they were made.
P.M. thought her teeth were stained, and every whitening attempt left them grayer. It was never stain. She had lost enamel, and what she was seeing was the tooth underneath. How to tell which kind of yellow you have.
“Why are my teeth getting shorter?”
Teeth wear down three ways: acid dissolving them, grinding and clenching, and hard brushing or abrasive toothpaste. Most people have some mix. Acid is the one that gets missed, from drinks or from reflux you may not feel, and it makes the other two worse. Enamel never grows back, so the useful question is what’s wearing it and how fast. Why teeth get shorter, and what helps.
“Why do the edges look see-through, and why do they keep chipping?”
Hold your front teeth up to a light. If the last millimeter or two of the edge looks grayish or glassy, that’s enamel thin enough to see through, with no dentin behind it. That’s the stage before chipping, and the stage where the fix is still small. Teeth that keep chipping are a pattern with a cause. Why teeth keep chipping, and when not to wait.
“Why do my teeth hurt with cold at the gum line?”
Usually the gum has pulled back and exposed the root, and acid has opened the tiny channels in it that lead toward the nerve. If a notch has started to form where the tooth meets the gum, tooth is being lost at its neck. Why cold water stings at the gum line, and what a notch at the gum line means.
“Why are my gums bleeding, or pulling back?”
There’s a reason “long in the tooth” means getting older. Bleeding gums are common, but they aren’t normal, and they’re usually the earliest sign of gum trouble. Caught as gingivitis, it’s fully reversible. Once bone is lost, it can be stopped and managed, but it doesn’t grow back. Why gums bleed, and what to do.
“Why am I suddenly getting cavities again?”
Decay has a second peak later in life, around 70. Three things drive it: receding gums expose root surface that decays faster than enamel, many common medications dry the mouth, and old fillings and crowns start to fail at their edges, usually without pain. Why a dry mouth leads to cavities, and why decay comes back at 70.
“What’s the dark line around my old crown?”
On an older crown it’s almost always the metal underneath, showing once the gum has pulled back. That’s mostly about how it looks. A dark line on a crown with no metal in it means something different, a problem at the seam where the crown meets the tooth, and that’s worth having looked at. How to tell which you have.
“Does my old crown need to be replaced?”
A well-made crown often lasts more than ten years, and frequently much longer. Most of the crowns we replace come down to decay starting at the edge, often under the gum where you can’t see it, or chipped porcelain. Decay caught early at the edge can sometimes be repaired without taking the crown off. When an old crown needs replacing. If you’ve been told there’s a crack around an old filling but it doesn’t hurt, here’s why it still matters.
“My bridge feels loose. Is that a big deal?”
Yes. A loose bridge is often a problem that, if it isn’t dealt with, can mean losing a tooth or teeth. It needs to be looked at sooner rather than later. Call 702-734-0776.
“Why are my teeth shifting, with new gaps opening up?”
Teeth aren’t set in concrete. Each one sits where the forces on it balance out: the tongue from inside, the lips and cheeks from outside, and the bite from above and below. Those forces never stop. When a tooth is lost and never replaced, the neighbors drift and tip into the space. What keeps moving teeth.
“Why does my bite feel different than it used to?”
Bites are often in flux. They change, and when yours feels different, there’s usually a reason worth finding:
- The jaw joint changed. A joint that used to pop and recently stopped isn’t always good news. It can mean the disc no longer slips back into place, which changes how the jaw closes, and over time the joint can start to wear. Is it your jaw muscles or the joint?
- A worn cusp or a broken tooth. Lose a point off one back tooth or a corner off another, and the teeth meet differently. Why teeth keep chipping.
- A lost tooth. The teeth around the gap drift and tip, and the bite moves with them.
Any of these is worth an exam, and a joint that stopped popping is worth one even if nothing hurts.
“I’m missing teeth. What are my options?”
Once a tooth is gone, an implant usually beats every alternative. If the tooth is still there and someone is proposing to remove it, that deserves a real answer first, because a borderline tooth is worth a serious attempt to keep. A surgeon places implants; we plan them and make the teeth that go on them. Replacing a missing tooth, and dentures, when they’re the right answer.
If your parents lost their teeth and you’re worried you’re next, here’s why that doesn’t decide what happens to yours.
“It feels like everything is going at once”
Worn, chipping, sensitive, old work failing: when it’s all happening together, the problems are stacked, and fixing teeth one at a time keeps losing ground. Rebuilding the teeth and the bite as one plan is called full mouth reconstruction, though plenty of people who ask about it turn out not to need it. When all your teeth need work.
And if you’re wondering whether it’s worth it at your age: is it too late to fix my teeth?
Where to start
A comprehensive exam tells you which of these you actually have, and whether anything is heading somewhere. For most people, at least part of the answer is that nothing needs doing yet. Call 702-734-0776 or tell us what’s going on.
General education, and not a substitute for an exam.