Are Medications Staining Your Teeth?
Posted on: 14 September 2015
When you think of things that stain your teeth, your first thought may be of something external, like wine or coffee. If your teeth are intensely stained, it may not be caused by what you eat, but by medications you've taken in the past. Having severely stained teeth can be embarrassing, and difficult to treat. Thankfully, there are still a few ways to correct this staining.
How Medications Stain Your Teeth
Medications aren't a surface stain like you'd see from consuming coffee or wine. Staining caused by medications are an internal stain that affects the dentin layer underneath your enamel. Because these stains are underneath the enamel, the staining can't be treated in the usual way. This means store bought whitening treatments won't work.
A pregnant mother can pass on these medications if she's treated during pregnancy. If any staining were to occur from a mother passing the medication on to her child it would affect their baby teeth. If a child is treated with a medication that causes staining, it could affect their permanent teeth.
Medications that May Be Responsible For Staining
There are several medications that can cause your teeth to be stained. Many of them are used to treat bacterial infections. Most of the staining caused by these medications occur during childhood, though some medications can affect fully formed teeth.
Tetracycline This medication is used to treat bacterial infections and can stain teeth anywhere from bright yellow to a dark brown. The stains caused by this medication start as yellow and darken to brown as the affected teeth are exposed to light.
Ciproflaxin This medication is used to treat a wide range of bacterial infections, including urinary tract infections. This medicine can stain teeth a bright green color over time.
Minocycline Hydroloride This medication is one of the only medicines that can stain teeth that have developed completely. It's typically used to treat acne and rheumatoid arthritis.
Treatments for Severely Stained Teeth
If you've undergone a root canal on the affected teeth you can have them bleached internally to address the staining issue. If you haven't undergone a root canal, you can't have the teeth internally bleached because there's still pulp inside that could be killed by bleaching.
Sadly, because these stains are located underneath the enamel, many whitening treatments won't work. Getting porcelain veneers is a great alternative to bleaching. These thin porcelain layers cover the teeth affected by the staining, and can be customized to the shade you want.
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