Maintain good oral hygiene & Remove Nicotine Stains from Your Teeth

3 Nifty Ways to Remove Nicotine Stains from Your Teeth

While there are a large number of foods and beverages which cause stained teeth, smoking cigarettes are one of the worst culprits for yellow teeth and bad breath.

Having white teeth and a stunning smile are each important for your social and professional status, so if you’re a smoker or an ex-smoker who wants to remove those pesky nicotine stains from their teeth, these three tips will be of great help to you. Alternatively, avoid stains in the first place 

Why does smoking cigarettes stain your teeth?

Most long-term smokers are identifiable by the unattractive, sickly shade of colour on their teeth. Why is smoking such an efficient stainer of teeth?

The staining effect of tobacco mostly has to do with the nicotine and tar. Nicotine itself is a colourless substance, but it turns yellow when mixed with oxygen. The substance created by the fusing of chemicals settles inside microscopic openings and cracks in your teeth’s enamel, turning it yellow and brown.

The stains caused by smoking are extrinsic, which is good news because it means they remain on the outer layer of the tooth and can be removed inexpensively.

Maintain good oral hygiene

Oral hygiene isn’t simply about brushing your teeth once in the morning and once before bed. There’s more you can do to ensure a healthy, clean mouth and fresh breath.

• Floss once a day to remove any foreign materials in between your teeth. Nicotine stains can cling to this build up and make thing worse.
• Use an antiseptic mouthwash to kill germs and improve the quality of your breath. Nobody wants the breath of a smoker.
• Regular visits to the dentist. Colgate recommends twice a year, but if the staining on your teeth is particularly bad, you might want to organise an extra visit to your dentist for advice.

At-home whitening remedies

Nicotine stains are stubborn. Depending on how long you have been smoking and how many cigarettes you smoke per day, the stains on your teeth can become embedded. Simply maintaining oral hygiene may not be enough to remove the stains.

If you want to push things along a little quicker without paying huge amounts, consider these remedies.

• Brush with a whitening toothpaste. Find at your local supermarket a toothpaste advertising its whitening capabilities. They tend to be more expensive, but the good ones get results.
• Create a natural whitening solution. You can create a natural remedy using strawberries, a quarter teaspoon of baking powder and mashing it all together. Cover your teeth with the paste and rinse after 5 minutes.

Take-home whitening kits

If you’re not keen on spending up to a thousand dollars on a professional whitening session, take-home whitening and bleaching kits come fully equipped with whitening strips, UV lights and retainers for a comprehensive whitening session guaranteed to get results, at almost a tenth of the price. For badly stained teeth, this is one of the most effective options on offer.

Also, if you are a heavy smoker, try quitting. You’ll improve your health in a multitude of ways and save money every week. Any of these remedies is bound to work much better if you’re not smoking throughout.