Having discolored or stained teeth is often a telltale sign of a smoker. Whether you're smoking cigarettes, vapes, or even a pipe, these products can potentially lead to your teeth becoming discolored and anything other than pearly white. If you're tired of having your teeth look like this, especially if you've given up smoking, you might be tempted to try teeth whitening. While this is one potential option for you, there's another that you should strongly consider. 

Why Teeth Get Stained

It's important to understand why smoking impacts the teeth in the first place. The smoke contains tar, which as you may know, can stain everything from your walls to your furniture. Since this smoke passes through your mouth every time you take a puff, it can also impact your dental enamel, the hard shell on the outside of your teeth. Enamel has a tendency to absorb stains and colorings like these, which is why even things like coffee and some teas can potentially stain teeth.

The Impact of Smoking on Enamel

Unfortunately, smoking often doesn't stop at just impacting the color of your dental enamel. Smoking can also ultimately lead to your dental enamel wearing down, and becoming thinner. When this happens, the enamel is less effective at protecting your teeth from invading substances like bacteria, which can increase your risk of developing cavities. Unfortunately, the problems don't stop there when you're interested in teeth whitening.

Teeth whitening is usually a perfectly safe cosmetic procedure to take part in at home, but not always. Teeth need to be healthy and with strong enamel to withstand the peroxide and other whitening agents found in at-home whitening kits. Otherwise, these substances can end up harming the interior of the tooth.

What's Better Than Whitening

The good news is that there's a better option than tooth whitening for you, and it can help to protect your teeth, too. Dental veneers are what you should be looking into. Dental veneers are designed to give your teeth a healthy luster and color. Veneers are essentially thin, tooth-shaped plates of porcelain that are attached to the front of teeth with dental adhesive. This instantaneously gives you the appearance of a shining, perfectly white smile, while also creating a layer of protection between the damaged enamel of your teeth and everything else. 

Choosing veneers not only ensures that your teeth look their best, but also helps to protect them from damage following enamel loss. Contact local cosmetic dental services to learn more.