Braces will make your teeth straighter, but will they change their color? This is a concern for many people who consider this tried-and-true method of teeth straightening.
In reality, it’s possible that braces could impact the color of your teeth, but there are a lot of factors at play. In this guide, we will examine the causes of tooth discoloration, and explain how braces can affect this process.
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What Causes Tooth Discoloration?
Tooth discoloration can occur for a few reasons. You’re probably familiar with the tooth-staining potential of beverages like coffee or red wine, but there are other causes for discoloration.
The main culprit behind tooth discoloration is plaque—a sticky film containing bacteria and food particles that wears through enamel, which is the shiny, protective layer of the tooth. In an early stage of tooth decay called demineralization, plaque can eat away at the minerals inside your enamel, resulting in small white or brown spots.
If left untreated, plaque can completely wear through your enamel and cause cavities. Once enamel is gone, it’s gone for good, but the minerals in your enamel are a little more forgiving. If you address demineralization before it progresses into further stages of tooth decay, you can remineralize your enamel to reduce or eliminate the spots on your teeth.
Can Braces Lead to Tooth Discoloration?
In a way, yes. Braces make it harder to maintain excellent oral hygiene because brackets and wires provide ample hiding spaces for plaque. Since plaque is the cause of demineralization, anything that makes it harder to keep your teeth clean during treatment will increase your risk.
Any external stains on your exposed tooth during treatment won’t reach the part of your tooth beneath the bracket, which can cause a contrast on your teeth when your braces come off.
Braces treatment is usually about 24 months. That’s plenty of time for teeth to accumulate external stains. Think of your braces as your swimsuit. If you wore your swimsuit for 24 months straight and got tan lines, would you blame the swimsuit? You’d probably blame yourself for failing to take preventative measures against tan lines during your 24-month trip to the beach.
How Can I Prevent Discoloration From Braces?
Though tooth discoloration with braces is possible, your fate isn’t sealed. Try these preventative measures to avoid the worst of it.
Maintain Great Oral Hygiene
Braces can make staying on top of your oral hygiene difficult. You will need to revamp your brushing technique to ensure you’re cleaning your brackets correctly. Flossing will also be a challenge, since you’ll need to thread the floss behind the archwire. Great oral hygiene is possible during braces treatment, it’s just a little more complicated.
One way to simplify your oral hygiene routine is by using floss threaders. These inexpensive tools help you floss behind your archwire with relative ease. Talk to your orthodontist about other ways to simplify this process—the easier you can make your oral hygiene routine, the likelier you are to do it.
Make Regular Dentist Appointments
Keeping up with your twice-yearly dentist appointments is an important part of good oral health. Dentists can access hard-to-reach places where plaque might be hiding. When plaque sits on your teeth too long, it can harden into tartar, which acts as a shield to protect the bacteria underneath. It’s difficult to remove tartar with a toothbrush, but a dentist can remove it easily.
At your regular appointments, your dentist can notice oral health issues before they become more serious. Demineralization is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to plaque damage, so it’s important to address decay as early as possible. With twice-yearly dentist appointments and regular appointments with your orthodontist, you’ll have major oversight on your oral health during your treatment.
Make Dietary Changes
Your diet has an enormous effect on your oral health. Plaque thrives on processed, starchy, and sugary foods, which become highly acidic in the mouth and wear through enamel. This can cause demineralization and severe tooth decay over time. Since braces provide so many nooks for plaque to hide, it’s even more important to avoid these foods during treatment.
Many of the foods that help plaque thrive can complicate your braces treatment in other ways, too. Foods like popcorn, chewing gum, and caramel are off-limits during braces treatment because they can damage or break your brackets—resulting in emergency appointments and treatment delays—so you’ll want to avoid them
Whole, plant-based foods like leafy green vegetables are your best bet for great oral hygiene. These foods require more chewing, producing more saliva, which helps keep your teeth clean. Plus, they have no added sugar, which helps create plaque.
Know Which Foods Will Stain
Beverages like coffee and red wine can darken your teeth over time. If you’re someone who regularly whitens your teeth, know that you can’t do so during braces treatment, so you should try to avoid foods that can stain your teeth.
However, just because a certain food can stain your teeth doesn’t mean it’s bad for you. Both soda and black coffee can stain your teeth, but soda contains a lot of added sugar, which will create plaque buildup while staining your teeth. Staining is more easily remedied than enamel damage, so be mindful when you’re choosing which foods to eliminate.
Avoid Whitening Products During Treatment
Whitening your teeth during treatment will only whiten the visible part of your tooth. This means that when your braces are removed your teeth might have two tones. There’s plenty of time to whiten your teeth after treatment.
Quit Smoking
There are many health-related reasons to quit smoking, and plenty of cosmetic ones too. If you smoke during your braces treatment, it will stain the area surrounding your brackets, starkly contrasting the whiter color behind your brackets once your braces are off.
In addition to yellowing your teeth, smoking makes plaque build up more likely, which can lead to demineralization. Smokers are also more likely to get periodontal (gum) disease due to plaque buildup at their gum lines. Braces already complicate oral hygiene, so you don’t need to challenge yourself further by adding smoking to the mix.
How Do I Fix Tooth Discoloration After Braces Treatment?
If demineralization occurred during your braces treatment, it is not necessarily permanent. Demineralization and remineralization happen all the time without us noticing. It’s important to catch demineralization in its early stages, before it progresses to more severe types of tooth decay. Returning to excellent oral hygiene can reduce or eliminate demineralization spots without further intervention.
Beyond maintaining great oral hygiene, you can also remineralize your enamel by brushing with fluoride toothpaste during and after treatment. Or, talk to your dentist about getting fluoride treatments, an in-office option that will boost the fluoride content in your enamel to help prevent tooth decay.
If you have some external stains after treatment, your dentist can recommend a whitening plan that meets your specific needs.
Do All Teeth Straightening Options Present This Risk?
All teeth straightening treatments require extra oral hygiene diligence. That being said, some treatments require more effort than others.
Ceramic braces are placed on the front of teeth like traditional braces, but they use lighter, more discreet materials. These braces come with the same demineralization risk as traditional braces. Because of their lighter color, ceramic braces stain more easily, so you’ll need to be extra careful with dark foods and drinks.
Lingual braces are placed on the back of your teeth, providing a lot more discretion. Lingual braces can cause the same kind of demineralization—just on the back of your teeth instead. Maintaining oral hygiene with lingual braces can be complicated since it’s difficult to see behind your teeth when brushing and flossing. Even if you can’t see the demineralization, it’s still important to remineralize in order to prevent tooth decay.
Invisalign’s clear aligners are removable, simplifying oral hygiene. You’ll still need to be vigilant with brushing and flossing, but your care routine will be essentially the same as it was before you began treatment.
At-home clear aligners provide treatment similar to Invisalign from the comfort of your own home, and they require the same oral hygiene diligence. However, some at-home clear aligner providers offer a nighttime-only treatment plan, requiring only 8-10 hours of wear a day. This means your brushing and flossing responsibilities are less intense during the day.
Final Thoughts
Braces treatment can lead to tooth discoloration, but you still have a tremendous amount of control over your oral health. If you rise to the occasion and maintain excellent oral hygiene during braces treatment, you’re more likely to catch discoloration early and reduce or eliminate its impact.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I remineralize my teeth?
You can remineralize your teeth by using fluoride toothpaste, getting fluoride treatments at the dentist, and changing some of your eating habits.
Should I whiten my teeth before I get braces?
Most orthodontists do not recommend whitening teeth right before braces treatment. If your teeth are crowded, whitening won’t cover the full surfaces of all of your teeth. This can cause the whitening to look uneven once the teeth have been straightened.
Can my enamel grow back?
Once your enamel is worn through completely, it cannot grow back. Fortunately, demineralization is reversible, as long as you catch it early.
Can I whiten my teeth while I have braces?
It is not advisable to whiten your teeth while you have braces since only the exposed part of your tooth would be whitened, creating a stark contrast to the parts underneath your brackets.
Are there low-cost options for the dentist?
Yes! Dental schools provide free or discounted treatments administered by students and overseen by licensed dentists.
Does demineralization lead to tooth loss?
Demineralization is an early form of tooth decay. If left untreated, demineralization can progress to cavities, which can eventually dig deeper into your tooth. Once it reaches the deepest level of your tooth, a cavity can create an abscess and require tooth removal.
Is fluoride natural?
Yes. Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral. Tap water often has fluoride inside it, which helps to protect your enamel.
Does demineralization lead to gum disease?
Demineralization doesn’t necessarily lead to gum disease, but both are caused by plaque. If your oral hygiene has suffered, plaque can lead to issues that might cause gum disease. Keeping excellent oral hygiene is the best defense against plaque.
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