Why aren’t my child’s adult teeth as white as their baby teeth?
I have many parents of my 6-7 year old patients concerned about the color of their child’s newly-erupting permanent teeth. So let’s talk about when to be concerned versus when it might just be something you didn’t expect. If the erupting permanent teeth have good shape, good size and are uniform in color but they are a tad bit more yellow than the baby teeth nearby, there usually isn’t anything you need to worry about. Baby teeth have thinner and whiter enamel than adult teeth, so you may be accustomed to seeing those pearly whites and the sight of those “less white” adult teeth throws you off. That’s ok. Under the layer of enamel (which you can see) is the layer of dentin which can come in several general shades- if I remember correctly from dental school, it will be a shade of either yellow, red or gray- and this underlying color will convey some color to the adult teeth. These teeth are generally perfectly healthy, they tend to look great once the other permanent teeth erupt (because there are no longer bright white baby teeth to compare to) and if you or your child is concerned about the color, there are many at-home or professional whitening solutions.
This being said, sometimes the color (or colors) of the erupting adult teeth can be a cause for concern or at the very least, curiosity. Symmetric white lines in the permanent teeth tend to be a sign of hypercalcification, usually due to overexposure to systemic fluoride. Asymmetric opaque areas can either be hypomineralized areas (check their permanent molars in the back, they may have similar opaque or yellow areas and then your child may have molar incisal hypoplasia) OR they could be the result of trauma to the baby tooth. Many kids trip and fall and hit their baby teeth- if this happens sometimes the root of the baby tooth can be displaced into the developing permanent tooth and you have a defect in the enamel structure. These areas of discoloration can also be addressed but tend to need interventions a bit more involved than simple whitening as presented above.
In my opinion, the most important thing is that their front teeth are healthy- does every touch of color on front teeth need treatment? I don’t personally believe so; if a patient is concerned about it though, please bring it up- I’m happy to go over the options for treatment with you to find the best approach for your child.