Brown Spots on Teeth

I have had brown spots on my two front teeth since I was a little girl and my adult teeth came in. While my teeth are healthy, they don’t look that way because of those wretchedly ugly front teeth. I’m 23 years old and want a pretty smile. My dentist and I have tried a variety of over the counter teeth whitening products but they seem to make the brown spots worse. She’d like to try grinding off the brown spots but isn’t sure how far she’ll have to grind. Do you think this will work any better or should I not let her do it?

Katelyn

Dear Katelyn,

First, I will say these brown spots are not your fault. Most of the time they are the result of an illness in childhood while the adult teeth were developing. Second, I would like you to not let this dentist experiment on you any longer.

While your dentist may have good intentions, she really doesn’t know what she is doing when it comes to any cosmetic work and could end up doing a great deal of damage to your teeth.

Teeth whitening is the most basic cosmetic procedure and she’s lost. It will not work on your brown spots, even if you do professional teeth whitening. As you have already discovered, they tend to make your brown spots look worse.

The Solution to Brown Spots

What you really need is a skilled cosmetic dentist who can do either cosmetic bonding or porcelain veneers on these teeth. Both of these are advanced cosmetic procedures, so you don’t want to let just any dentist do the procedure. I certainly wouldn’t recommend your dentist, though she is likely a good general dentist.

My recommendation would be to find someone with great cosmetic skills to fix the brown spots and then stay with your current dentist for your basic care.

Before settling on someone to do your work, I’d look at their smile gallery to make sure you love the results they get. To be on the safe side, call and make sure they are images of actual patients the dentist treated and not just stock photos.

This blog is brought to you by Baton Rouge Dentist Dr. Steven Collins.