A dentist has revealed the two common mistakes when brushing your teeth that could lead to yellow teeth.
Dentist Ferakh Hamid, of Aesthetique Dental Care in Leeds, said Britons were making two easily fixable mistakes when it came to yellowing teeth.
The first is that some Britons choose not to wet their toothbrush before brushing, believing that doing so would help remove unsightly stains.
But Dr Hamid said so-called “dry brushing” could actually make teeth look duller and, by extension, more yellow.
“Before you start brushing your teeth, it’s a good idea to wet them. This small step makes it easier to distribute the toothpaste over all of your teeth, making cleaning more effective,” she says.
Dentist Ferakh Hamid, of Aesthetique Dental Care in Leeds, said Britons were making two easily fixable mistakes when it came to yellowing teeth.
‘Dry brushing may seem good for removing surface stains at first, but without water, toothpaste doesn’t spread well, leading to dull teeth.’
He said the second mistake Britons make is brushing their teeth too soon after consuming acidic drinks.
Acidic drinks, such as fruit juices, wine, sugary and sugar-free soft drinks, and foods like oranges and grapefruit can weaken tooth enamel.
And Dr. Hamid explained that brushing your teeth when your enamel is weakened could cause your teeth to appear more yellow.
‘Brushing your teeth too soon after eating acidic foods can wear away tooth enamel,’ he said.
‘This reveals the yellower layer underneath and makes your teeth look more yellow.
‘To avoid this, it is best to wait a while after eating acidic foods before brushing your teeth, which ensures that the enamel stays strong and the teeth healthy.’
Many dentists recommend waiting at least an hour after consuming acidic foods and drinks before brushing your teeth to allow the enamel to recover.
Dr Hamid’s comments come just days after another dentist warned about the dangers of using whitening toothpaste.
In a viral video that has already been viewed more than 2 million times, the oral health specialist told his TikTok followers thatWhitening toothpastes ‘don’t actually whiten teeth’.
While they may make your smile look whiter at first by removing darker enamel, over time, the abrasive ingredients cause teeth to become thinner, yellower and more sensitive, she said.
This is because the erosion of the tooth’s protective enamel exposes the dentin, the main part of the tooth that has a yellow tint.
This comes as Britons continue to struggle to access affordable NHS-subsidised dental care.
The latest official data shows that as of June this year only 40 per cent of adults in England have visited an NHS dentist in the past two years.
That compares with nearly 50 percent at the end of 2019, just before the Covid pandemic forced many dentists to temporarily close their doors as the country went into lockdown.
For children, who have free access to NHS dental care, the proportion who have visited an NHS dentist in 12 months has fallen to 56 per cent in June this year, down from almost 60 per cent before the pandemic.
NHS dental attendance figures for both adults and children plummeted during the Covid pandemic as practices closed as part of lockdown rules and stopped offering treatment.
But it has not managed to recover even though the darkest days of the pandemic are now a thing of the past.
Industry experts suggest this is because providing NHS treatment is not as lucrative as doing so privately.
Old NHS contracts for dentists paid them for batches of work carried out, rather than individual treatments, no matter how complicated a particular case might be.
In practice, this meant that NHS dentists were paid the same for treating a patient who needed 10 fillings as for one who only needed one.
This resulted in dentists losing money when treating some NHS patients because what they were paid did not cover the costs of the procedure.
While this contract has now been reformed, the British Dental Association (BDA) estimates that thousands of NHS dentists left or greatly reduced their NHS work following the pandemic.
Compounding the crisis is that as more dentists leave or drastically reduce their work in the NHS, those who remain risk becoming overwhelmed.
A survey of dentists by the BDA in 2022 following the pandemic suggested that three-quarters of them were experiencing burnout and felt unable to spend enough time with their patients to provide the care they needed.
And, much like the GP appointment crisis, as patients struggle to gain access, frustrations can boil over.
The same BDA survey found that 86 per cent of dentists said their practice had experienced physical or verbal abuse from patients.
The NHS dental appointment crisis has seen increasing numbers of Britons travel abroad for treatment or even perform gruesome dental surgeries at home using tools such as pliers as they cannot afford private care in the UK.