UC San Diego

Brilliant white teeth is a desire for most Americans today. Currently there is different whitening products to bring this shine, however the stains themselves do not have structured origins. Throughout their life, a tooth’s shade can change due to age, unrelated impacts, a number of oral cavity diseases, and by the products which we consume. Exploring the consumption of our food products, the chemistry of the oral cavity, and the associating microbial communities in relation to tooth staining is the focus of this study. In hopes of determining the chemical compounds that are causing the staining to occur extrinsically (in the enamel) and intrinsically (in the dentin) within the coronal portion of the tooth. In addition to this goal the study aims to assess the differences between teeth that have been stained significantly over time, versus teeth that have normal natural stain occurrences throughout time. The teeth that have been stained significantly over time were artificially stained with common staining solutions. Those staining solutions include: coffee, tobacco, tea, and wine. These solutions have been index and annotated for comparison to normal naturally stained teeth. 1000 human teeth were used in this study, which were analyzed using HPLC-MS/MS. Based on the metabolomics analysis, microbial communities will be analyzed in correlation to the various staining measurements