Very often, people specially females, complain of yellowness of their teeth and ask about measures to whiten them. They should know that whiteness of teeth is due to more of an optical illusion than a reality. The natural teeth visible in a mouth consists of two layers. The upper most layers is called Enamel and underneath it is Dentin. Enamel is translucent while the color of dentin varies from light yellow to dark yellow. Enamel being translucent does not have its own color but exposes the dentin color.

A question then arises why teeth appear white? This is in fact, because of contrast between teeth color and color of skin. The teeth appear whiter in the people with dark skin than those having white skin. It can well be observed during the match between England team and West Indian team shown on TV. West Indian players look like having whiter teeth as compared to English players.

Walnut Tree Bark is used as home remedy to whiten the teeth. It does remove some external stains present on the teeth due to mechanical friction caused by rubbing of the bark. The bark has to be chewed to make it soft for rubbing on teeth which stains mucosa of gums and lips brown. This dark pigmentation of the gums and lips around the teeth make the teeth appear whiter for transient period of time. The teeth look whiter till the brown stain is present on the surrounding structures.