Kiss Your Dentist Goodbye: A Do-It-Yourself Mouth Care System for Healthy, Clean Gums and Teeth by Dr. Ellie Phillips

Author:Dr. Ellie Phillips [Phillips, Dr. Ellie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2012-10-02T22:00:00+00:00

Enamel and Dentin

Everyone should realize that whatever you use to bleach your teeth, you are trying to achieve a “less-hazardous effect on the enamel’s mineral content.” Everyone who bleaches their teeth will damage their enamel to some extent. The problem is that tooth enamel is delicate, and most people do not treat it with the respect it both needs and deserves.

Let’s review the important facts about enamel from previous chapters. When your enamel is healthy, it is made up of perfect crystals tightly packed together, making it solid, smooth, and strong. The density of enamel depends on how tightly the crystals are packed, which depends on the quantity of minerals it contains.

Dentin is the tooth layer underneath enamel. It is softer than enamel, has a creamy white color, and is very porous. When you look at dentin under a microscope, you see small tubes radiating from the center of the tooth, through the layer, to the enamel on the outside. At the very center of the tooth, encased by dentin, is the blood supply to the tooth, nerves, and many cells. This is the tooth pulp. If you fracture a tooth and expose the pulp, it will cause bleeding and will expose live nerves. Live cells called odontoblasts live underneath the entrance to each of these dentin tubes and these cells continue throughout a tooth’s life to build the dentin layer. These cells have extension arms that travel up the inside of the dentin tubes, looking like a Gumby arm stretching out from the cell inside the pulp area. Any change in pressure is transmitted through these cells to the nerve inside the tooth, which is why you feel pain and sensitivity when a dentist cuts or touches the dentin layer with dental instruments.

Many people are surprised to find out that the outside layer of every healthy tooth is colorless—the color of glass—and translucent. When light shines on a tooth it either reflects off the surface or travels through the enamel, reflecting to some extent the color of the dentin layer underneath it. A tooth’s whiteness is basically determined by how much light is reflected off the outer surface. If the light is absorbed by a soft enamel surface it will look the color of the dentin underneath—usually a yellowish color.

Variations in how naturally white a tooth appears are therefore determined by the strength of the outer layer. Hard, strong, healthy enamel will behave like a diamond and bounce light off its surface in a way that makes teeth seem brighter and appear whiter, no matter the color of the dentin in the underlying tooth. Soft teeth behave in the opposite way; light is absorbed into their surface, making them look yellowish and dull. If you want to whiten your teeth, the safest way is to focus on strengthening your teeth. People who strengthen soft teeth will notice they quickly begin to appear whiter as the enamel becomes smooth and hard. The more you strengthen your teeth, the more people will likely notice and comment on your white teeth, even without bleaching.

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