tomatoes

Teeth are called pearly whites for a reason. They should be white - not see-through. Along with affecting your appearance, translucent teeth can also signal that something more serious is going on with your teeth. Teeth typically begin to appear translucent when enamel is thinning.

Causes of Translucent Teeth

Wonder why your teeth are becoming ghost-like? It could be a result of acid erosion. If you’re not taking proper care of your teeth, acids in your food and drinks can begin to eat away at your enamel. Very acidic foods include soda, pickles, red wine, tomatoes, and citrus fruits.
Translucent teeth due to thinning enamel isn’t always your fault. Several conditions can cause this issue as well. If you have severe enamel hypoplasia, your enamel will lose minerals and your teeth will appear translucent. This condition is a side effect of both genetic and environmental factors, and occurs when your teeth are developing. Celiac disease can also lead to issues with the development of your enamel. Finally, conditions like bulimia, morning sickness and acid reflux (GERD) can cause acids to erode your tooth enamel.
As you can see, enamel erosion or thinning can be caused by a wide variety of factors. It’s best to visit your dentist to figure out exactly why you’re experiencing translucent teeth so that you can halt the thinning as soon as possible.

How to Fix Translucent Teeth

Once your enamel is gone, it can’t regrow naturally. However, there are some ways the doctor can remineralize your teeth and make them appear whiter and brighter again.

• Enamel Remineralization: During enamel remineralization, your doctor will open up the “pores” in your teeth and penetrate the tooth with calcium phosphate, sodium fluoride and Recaldent. This combination of ingredients will act like enamel by improving the appearance, strength and sensitivity of the tooth. Not only will your teeth be whiter, but they will also be more resistant to acid erosion and decay, will be less sensitive and have less white spots, or none at all. You can see a picture of one of our patient’s teeth before and after enamel remineralization to the right.
• Veneers: If you want to purely improve the appearance of your teeth, veneers will take the translucency out of your smile. Veneers are simply placed on top of your teeth to cover up the translucent color. You can either choose to receive either traditional porcelain veneers or time-saving minimal prep veneers, depending on your needs and budget.

Steps to Prevent this Problem

While you can’t prevent enamel hypoplasia or celiac disease, you can prevent acid erosion from foods or from conditions like bulimia, acid reflux and morning sickness. Immediately after you eat acidic foods, throw up or experience acid reflux, it’s important that you wash your mouth out with water. Do not brush your teeth right away. Since acids make your enamel more vulnerable, brushing immediately could do more harm to your enamel. Wait at least 30 minutes before you brush, and use mouthwash to ensure you wash all of the acids away.
Worried about your translucent teeth? Don’t be afraid to call Chicago’s #1 dentistry, Water Tower Dental Care. We’ll be happy to discuss what may be happening to your teeth and put together a treatment plan for you. You’ll be on the path to a healthy set of pearly whites in no time!

When it comes to food, there’s really no end to deliciousness in Chicago. From world famous pizza to the Puerto Rican-inspired jibarito, regional specialties have prospered in the Windy City. This week, we’re going to take a look at Chicago’s three most iconic foods and see how good they are for your teeth. Let’s do this.

Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza

The most envied and renowned of all Chicago’s food offerings is by far its treasured deep dish pizza. In Chicago, pizza isn’t some sort of snack or late-night afterthought. It’s a hearty meal baked in a deep pan and piled with gooey cheese, rich tomato sauce and other delicious ingredients.
But is it good for your teeth? Yes and no. Cheese is one of your teeth’s best friends, providing your pearly whites with calcium, phosphates and vitamin D. These minerals help reduce your risk of tooth decay, guard your teeth from acid and help your enamel stabilize and repair itself.
The bad news for your teeth comes in the form of tomato sauce. Tomatoes are highly acidic. If you eat pizza too often or you let pizza sit in your mouth for a while, the acids from the tomatoes can start breaking down your enamel. The starch in pizza can also be easily converted to enamel-eroding sugars.
Conclusion: Though Chicago’s pizza has a bunch of tooth-loving cheese in it, it also has lots of starch and tomato sauce. It’s not the worst food for your teeth, but it’s definitely not the best. Thankfully, your teeth will be just fine as long as long as you eat pizza in moderation.

Chicago-Style Hot Dogs

Unlike most of the United States, it’s a cardinal sin to put ketchup on a hot dog in Chicago. The typical Chicago-style hot dog is made up an all-beef hot dog, steamed poppy seed bun, yellow mustard, tomato wedges, hot peppers, a pickle spear, chopped onions, celery salt, and relish. We like to call it a little piece of heaven.
So now let’s break it down into the good and bad for your mouth. The all-beef hot dog is all-good for your teeth. Meats are packed with phosphorus, a mineral that helps to keep your enamel protected. It also has calcium, which we know is great for our teeth. Unfortunately, the starchy bun contains sugars that will attack your enamel, and pickles are one of the worst foods for your teeth.
Conclusion: If you cut out some of the hot dog toppings that are bad for your teeth, like pickles, pickled relish and tomato wedges, you’ll have a dog that’s actually pretty good for your mouth. Some Chicagoans may call this a sin, but we call it a toothy upgrade.

Italian Beef

In Chicago, there’s nothing juicier than Italian beef. It doesn’t get better than sandwiches packed with thin slices of roast beef on top of an Italian-style roll dripping with meat juices. You might top the sandwich off with Chicago-style giardiniera (Italian-American relish) or friggitello.
Again, the phosphorus beef is great for your teeth. But if the giardiniera or friggitello is pickled in vinegar, it’s not so good for your teeth. The acids from the vinegar will aggressively eat away at your enamel if you eat too many pickled veggies or fruits.
Conclusion: Knock off the pickled toppings and you’ve got a Chicago-style food item that’s pretty good for your teeth! Since Italian beef is mostly made up of lots and lots of beef, and beef is tooth-friendly, your teeth will happily munch on this one.

Final Thoughts

We’ll have to give the title of “worst Chicago-style food for your teeth” to Chicago-style hot dogs. The starchy bun and official toppings won’t make your pearly whites any healthier. However, as long as you don’t eat a dog a day and practice proper oral hygiene, your teeth will be just fine. Munching on these Chicago delights every once in awhile won’t do your teeth any significant harm.

Just because something is good for you doesn’t mean it’s good for your teeth. There’s a wide variety of food that nutritionists would consider healthy for you, but that can damage your teeth if you’re not careful. Here are the top 6 healthy foods that are surprisingly bad for your teeth.

Citrus Fruits (Grapefruits, Oranges and Lemons)

While fruits like oranges, lemons and grapefruits are jam-packed with vitamin C and other important nutrients, they’re not so good for you teeth. Citrus fruits are very acidic and can erode your teeth’s enamel if not completely washed away.
Solution: You don’t have to stop eating citrus fruit to keep your mouth healthy! Immediately after eating a citrus fruit, wash your mouth out with water. Then, 30 minutes later, gently brush your teeth and use mouthwash to completely get rid of the acids.

Tomatoes

Like citrus fruits, tomatoes are highly acidic, causing enamel and tooth erosion. And it isn’t just raw tomatoes that can do your teeth harm. Unfortunately, tomato sauces, soups and pizza can cause tooth erosion due to tomato’s acidity.
Solution: Mix tomatoes with other foods so that your teeth aren’t solely exposed to tomato acids. You can also immediately wash out your mouth with water, and then gently brush your teeth and use mouthwash 30 minutes after eating tomato-based foods just like you can do with citrus fruits. This way, you’ll get rid of the acids before they cause serious harm.

Pickles

Acid is actually used in the pickling process to give pickles their trademark sour taste. This high acid content causes pickles to be closely linked to tooth erosion, according to this 2004 study.
Solution: As long as you don’t eat pickles daily, it’s unlikely that they will cause any serious problems for your teeth. If you do eat pickles regularly, wash your mouth out with water after you’ve finished eating and try to brush your teeth 30 minutes later to avoid serious harm to your teeth.

Apples

While apples have been found to be good for your teeth in some ways, they can also cause teeth erosion. Dental experts have found that apple’s acidic structure and increasingly high levels of sugar can cause erosion, according to The British Dental Association in a Daily Mail article.
Solution: Like with the other acidic foods, wash your mouth out with water after eating apples and brush 30 minutes later. You can also eat them with other food to minimize damage, and try eat your apple in one sitting instead of snacking on one for a while.

Dried Fruit

Though an easy snack, dried fruit is sticky and full of sugar. When it gets stuck to your teeth, which is inevitable, it creates a breeding ground for bacteria to eat away at the fruit’s sugar and your teeth.
Solution: Stick to fresh fruits if you can. If you do eat dried fruit, make sure to floss and brush away the dried fruit as completely as possible 30 minutes after you eat it.

Dark Teas

Black tea has a long list of health benefits, including fighting off free radicals and providing your body with antioxidants, according to TIME.com. It has even been found to fight off cavities. Still, tea has been found to potentially stain teeth even worse than coffee thanks to its higher tannin content, according to Colgate.
Solution: Drink water during and after you’re done drinking tea to reduce the likelihood that it will stain your teeth, and brush immediately afterwards. You can also switch to herbal tea, white tea or green tea, which are much less likely to cause stains and still provide health benefits.
Though these healthy foods may be bad for your teeth, it doesn’t mean you should stop eating them. Just make sure to follow our solutions and you’ll be on track to having healthy and beautiful looking teeth for years to come. Feel free to contact us with any questions! We would love to help.