Can a dentist tell if your teeth are stained from smoking vs other reasons?

I don’t know that nicotine stains would look any different from other stains, but there must be other signs that a person smokes besides the colour of their teeth (subtle changes in mouth tissues, breath etc.). My dad is a dentist, and he knew I smoked in high school before anyone else figured it out.

I was a smoker many years ago (I quit 8 yrs ago). I visited a new dentist for a cleaning and the hygienist asked me if I was a smoker. She said she could tell by looking at the back of my front teeth.

If you think about it, the back of your teeth bear the brunt of the smoke and residue when you exhale.

It’s likely in their studies and experience that they could tell the difference between different types of stains – just the same way that it’s likely for a detective to tell the difference between a suicide and a homicide or a fisherman to be able to distinguish the different types of fish.

There are likely characteristics consistent with sugar stains, smoking stains, coffee stains, etc. but I doubt there’s any 100% confidence test to tell you what’s what.

When I was a tiny baby, I was horribly sick and was given Tetracycline to save my life. As a result, my teeth are sort of dingy-colored. My dentist kept asking me if I drank a lot of coffee and tea until she realized what was up.

That said, some other things have different patterns of stain. Dentists can tell “Mountain Dew Mouth” from a long way off. (Go here and scroll down.)

They are close enough to smell your breath…I think that would be a dead giveaway even if your teeth aren’t too bad. (Dental hygienist is on my list of jobs I’d never want…)

I think it’s usually hard for them to tell what the stains are from on your teeth. I remember the dental hygienist once commenting on some stain on my teeth and she asked me if I smoked (no), if I drank (no), if I drank coffee (no), and finally concluded it was probably from drinking soda (no) after which she gave up guessing.

I would suggest you ask the dentist about this next time you’re in for a checkup and see what they say.

@laureth tetracycline stains are greyish and cannot be improved with whitening strips. Smoking, coffee, dark sodas, etc tend to be yellow staining and can be bleached. I don’t see how your dentist could confuse it?

It only matters if you want to do something about it.

< is a dentist- you can always tell if it’s from smoking because you can smell it when you grind the stain off. There’s extrinsic stains, and intrinsic stains, the former being removable and the latter not so much.

I quite smoking almost twelve years ago, my dentist still insists I stop smoking because of the staining on my teeth, I keep repeating myself every time I go for a check up “I don’t smoke”!!! “But I do drink a lot of coffee”. still I brush twice a day, my hygienist recommends a visit every four moths for a good polish…… I’ll be dammed if I’m giving up my coffees……. :-/
So No, they can’t tell….. Unless you stink of nicotine…..