Teeth with stannous fluoride (SnF2) staining will often have a light brown to black halo near the gum margin. It can appear on the tongue side of the teeth or on the cheek side.
The color of the staining is indicative of the severity of the condition. The darker the color, the longer it has probably been on the teeth.
Fortunately, these stains are not permanent as they can be removed during a dental cleaning. However, if there is a lot of it you may benefit from additional teeth whitening after the stain removal.
Photo of mild stannous fluoride teeth stain
The intraoral photo below shows teeth with mild stannous fluoride staining on the tongue side. It looks like a light brown line that parallels the gum margin. It has not fully matured yet because the stain line is not yet contiguous.
Photo of moderate stannous fluoride teeth stain
The intraoral photo below shows teeth with a moderate amount of stannous fluoride staining. If you compare this photo to the more mild one above you'll notice that the coloring of this one is more intense or darker.
Photo of severe stannous fluoride teeth stain
The intraoral photo below shows severe stannous fluoride stains. It has now transformed from a brown stain to a deep dark black color. Once again, these discolorations are mostly located along the gingival margin, almost parallelling it.
Takeaway
If you're noticing stannous fluoride stains, you should schedule an appointment with one of our dentists in Long Island City so that we can remove them for you during a dental cleaning. If we're not able to remove all of it, you may need some teeth whitening to get rid of it.
Nonetheless, if this becomes a recurring problem for you, you should highly consider switching to a toothpaste without SnF2. A better alternative would be a sodium fluoride toothpaste or a hydroxyapatite based one.
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