I took my 8 year old to the dentist today for a check-up. One of our concerns was the brown discoloration on her two front teeth. The first question the dentist asked was "Is she a tea drinker?" (No). The second question stunned me, "Is she a swimmer?"
Apparently a few of his swim team patients over the years have experienced discoloration. It's not permanent (he was able to scrap her's off). He didn't explain the chemical reaction taking place.
I have never heard of this before, so I thought I'd put it up here. Have any of you had this experience either with yourselves or your kids? And can anyone explain what the chlorine/dental connection is or could be?
:coffee:
I've never experienced this, nor has my wife nor kids. Sounds fishy to me. I'm going to a big kids' meet this weekend. I'll try to remember to check out some kid choppers. Two of my best friends are dentists. I'll also ask them. Stay tuned.
Yes, I recall in my pre-coffee years having some brown discoloration on my teeth that our family dentist attributed to swimming. His kids swam with me, too. He just polished it off at every visit.
Now I attribute the difference between "my teeth" and "pearly white" more to coffee than to the pool, although I try to keep discoloration between dentist visits to a minimum with frequent brushing. If the color on her teeth bugs your daughter, maybe brushing right after practice would help. (I know, I know; you said she is 8. But hey: internet brainstorming.)
But there's a difference between "brown stains" and "severe erosion."
I think this article from the "Academy of General Dentistry" is more on point:
www.agd.org/.../Default.asp
"Athlete swimmers, who often swim laps more than six hours a week, expose their teeth to large amounts of chemically treated water. Pool water contains chemical additives like antimicrobials, which give the water a higher pH than saliva, causing salivary proteins to break down quickly and form organic deposits on swimmer's teeth.
The result is swimmer's calculus, hard, brown tartar deposits that appear predominantly on the front teeth. 'It's a common cosmetic condition among swimmers,' says AGD spokesperson J. Frank Collins, DDS, MAGD. Swimmers who notice the stains should talk to their dentist and perhaps increase their dental visits to three or four times a year, advises Dr. Collins."
Update - my dentist pal confirms tooth discoloration in adolescent swimmers but says it is "a surface stain that is easily polished off." He also had 4 year rounders.
My father is a dentist and he says the ph of the pool causes staining. If the pool is too acidic then it causes your teeth to yellow. But it's a superficial stain so it should polish right off when you go for a cleaning.
If the pool is too acidic it can also mottle your teeth - the enamel can get hypocalcified and it can change the surface of your teeth. Bottom line, a little yellowing from the pool is ok, but if you are getting major stains or mottling, talk to the pool manager because the ph is out of balance.
One more, from a Canadian journal:
"Rapid and Severe Tooth Erosion from Swimming in
an Improperly Chlorinated Pool: Case Report"
www.cda-adc.ca/.../359.pdf
Thanks to Jayhawk, ourswimmer and Geek for finding those articles and checking this out. (I googled, but got nothing other than the "Chlorine is a Poison" articles). The article by the AGD described exactly what my daughter's teeth looked like. As long as it's not permanent and can be periodically scraped off, I'm cool with it.
I don't know about teeth, but I have recently stopped using nail base due to the nails turning "yellowish". Being a metrosexual male, I used a neutral base, no coloring, so eventually I had yellow fingernails (and toenails).
