“Discolored” teeth after braces, what to do?

This is one of the most frequent question I get asked after we remove braces on a patient. As we progress through orthodontic treatment your teeth collect all sorts of food particles and food dye, including coffee stains, soda stains, etc. All that adds up to quite a bit of staining on your teeth on a regular basis. Now add braces on top of your teeth and, if you don’t brush your teeth as instructed, they will become stained, and that is what you tend to see more often than not once your braces come off.

We polish your teeth pretty nicely after your braces come off, but even with all that polishing we might not be able to get all the stains off, so we recommend to most of our patients to get tooth whitening done from their dentist after the braces come off and that should take care of almost all the normal stains.

Here is an article written in Oprah magazine that I came across about tooth whitening that you might find interesting. http://www.oprah.com/style/New-Teeth-Whitening-Technology-Zoom-WhiteSpeed-Lamp

Other than that keep your teeth really clean and see your hygienist every three to four months while in braces and you should be pretty much set.