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Terrified from stains

L

Laura86

Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2019
Messages
99
Location
Australia
Hello,
I have a severe dentist phobia and just saw the back of my top 4 front teeth in the mirror and nearly fainted at the stains. I have developed a tea drinking habit this year that I’m almost certain is the cause, but since the stains are on the back of those teeth, I only saw them now. They look rather similar to the teeth in the photo (though the photo is not of my teeth, it’s a photo I found on Google images). Is there anything I can do about these stains that does not involve a dentist? I ask this partly due to my phobia and partly due to my dentist having filled a tooth while I was under general anaesthetic after another dentist had told me what I had was a stain (which had been there for 23 years). I’m sure my dentist should know the difference between stains and decay, but I’m really scared. I have no indications of it being decay (no pain, it’s not sticky, no sign of grooves or holes in the teeth, no sensitivity). I brush twice a day (including once with a Colgate advanced whitening toothpaste). Is there any more I can do and should I give up tea before it damages my teeth? Thanks so much!
 

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Hi Laura, hope you're doing well. The tea isn't damaging your teeth, the stains are superficial and will polish off pretty easily using the proper dental polishing paste. Unfortunately it's not really a DIY job so if you want them removed you'll need to visit a dentist.
I ask this partly due to my phobia and partly due to my dentist having filled a tooth while I was under general anaesthetic after another dentist had told me what I had was a stain (which had been there for 23 years).
This is mostly down to your being under general anaesthetic. GA is always a bit risky for the patient, so if you have any doubt at all about something, then you have to err on the side of doing more treatment not less. Something I'd be happy to watch and wait if I wasn't using GA I would almost always fill if the patient was under GA. You really don't want to have to do another GA in the near future. Hope this makes sense!

This should have been explained to you before the GA but usually there's so much going on that people get a bit overwhelmed.
 
@Gordon thanks so much! It is very reassuring to know the stains are only superficial. Does this mean they can wait until my regular appointment in December rather than having to be seen to urgently, and that I don't have to give up tea? To be fair, when I had the general anaesthetic procedure, I was in such a state that the dentist could have told me a dinosaur was loose and it might not have registered. Thanks again!
 
Yes they can wait till December. Assuming you're not putting sugar/honey etc in the tea then it's fine to drink as much of the foul stuff as you want :)

Like the dinosaur analogy, I may steal it :)
 
Thanks so much. I’m putting a flat teaspoon of sugar in but I only have two cups per day and lately I’ve been rinsing my mouth afterward.
 
For absolute best dental health, try not to sip at it for too long.

You'd get used to not having sugar in a few days btw, took me that long to get off my 2 sugars in coffee issue :)
 
Thanks! I definitely couldn’t handle two sugars. I will try to cut down on sipping time and phase out the sugar. Thanks again!
 
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