Braces Stains: How To Remove, Causes, Prevention

After getting braces, when you realize your teeth are turning yellow, you may feel upset. So, the question arises in your mind, “How to get rid of braces stains fast?”

Avoid foods that stains braces, use fluoride toothpaste and mouthwash, brush your teeth at least twice a day, and floss at least once a day regularly to get rid of braces stains fast. However, if you have too many stains, you may need tooth whitening treatment after braces. Till then, keep maintaining oral hygiene.

In this article, we’ll know how the tooth gets stained with braces fast. Then, we’ll take a look at how to prevent stains from braces and how to remove them.

What Causes Braces Stains?

Braces stains may form for many reasons. First of all, you have to know, braces may stain your teeth and turn them yellow. Not only that, braces themselves can be discolored or stained. But, why does this happen?

Braces stains may occur due to poor oral hygiene such as not brushing and flossing teeth regularly or choosing the wrong type of toothpaste, toothbrush, and floss.

It may also happen if you don’t know how to brush and floss properly while wearing those brackets and wires.

Another important reason is taking wrong foods and drinks. Eating acidic food and beverage can stain your braces easily. It will cause more issues if you don’t maintain hygiene with that.

Moreover, surgery or sticky foods such as candy and chocolate can also cause braces stains.

Using tooth whitening products without an orthodontist’s advice can also lead to this problem.

All of these are not only responsible for braces stains but also tooth discoloration and decay.

Tips to prevent teeth stains with braces

When you wear braces and you find that your teeth turning yellow or getting stained, you can follow these tips and get a good result, though the severely stained portion is hard to be removed.

Here are the tips to prevent stains from braces:

1. Brush regularly and thoroughly

Tooth brushing can be the number one way to prevent braces stains. Brush your teeth regularly and thoroughly.

Brushing teeth with braces on is a little bit different from without them. The reason for that is you have to clean both teeth and braces. Moreover, you have to protect braces and other components from getting damaged or loose.

So, learn and follow the proper method of tooth brushing with braces from your orthodontist or you can learn from here. Without knowing the method you may hurt your braces and can’t clean teeth and braces completely.

The next question is how many times should you brush teeth with braces?

Whether we wear braces or not, we must brush our teeth twice a day. With braces, we must do at least two times, sometimes three.

Many people brush their teeth before breakfast which isn’t correct. Our goal is to clean teeth from food debris. So, why are you cleaning teeth before breakfast?

You must brush your teeth before you sleep at night. Otherwise, it’ll help bacteria to form plaque and increase the risk of tooth decay.

You can rinse your mouth after waking up from the bed. That’s enough. But, you should brush your teeth after breakfast. Otherwise, food debris will stay all day long and you may have plaque and tooth discoloration.

Another important thing is choosing the perfect toothbrush and toothpaste for braces. Check the later part of this article.

So, in short, follow these things-

• Brush teeth at least twice a day.
• Use the proper technique of brushing teeth with braces.
• Brush your teeth before breakfast and before going to bed at night.
• Choosing the ideal toothbrush and toothpaste for braces.

2. Use fluoride toothpaste

Brush your teeth with fluoride toothpaste as it makes your enamel strong and helps prevent tooth staining and decay.

3. Rinse with mouthwash

Use mouthwash to get rid of stains. Rinsing the mouth is the easiest way of tooth cleaning. Still many people, especially children don’t do it. You shouldn’t brush your teeth or use flosses all day. But, you may take food more than 3 or 4 times a day.

You should rinse your mouth every time after taking food. You can also do that before brushing your teeth, It removes a lot of food particles easily.

You should use fluorinated mouthwash sometimes. You can’t use all types of mouthwashes for a long time, but sometimes in some situations like bad breath or gum ulceration, you can use them.

4. Floss the teeth every day

If you ask me about flossing, I’ll say flossing is mandatory after getting braces. As a toothbrush can’t clean all surfaces of teeth and brackets, you must use dental floss for that.

For preventing plaque formation and tooth staining, you should floss your teeth at least once a day. You may have good-looking teeth without flossing before wearing braces. But, it won’t remain the same after the removal of braces, if you aren’t aware.

5. Stay away from acidic and sugary drinks

Acidic foods and drinks damage the tooth enamel by chemical reaction. Sugary drinks also weaken the teeth and help bacteria to form decay. This occurs more in case you are wearing braces.

So, to prevent tooth staining, try to avoid fruit juice containing high acid, soda, hard drinks, cold drinks, sports drinks, coffee, or tea.

However, if you take this sometimes, clean your mouth nicely.

6. Avoid sticky foods

You know that it’s difficult to clean food debris with braces on teeth. So, you have to pick the right kinds of foods so that you can clean easily. Sticky foods attach to your teeth, braces, and between them which is hard to remove, resulting in yellow discoloration of teeth.

So, avoid sticky foods such as sticky chocolate or candy. In case you have eaten these foods, clean your mouth with extra care.

7. Avoid starchy or sugary foods

Starchy and sugary foods do favor the plaque and tooth caries formation process. If these foods stay in your teeth for a long time, you will surely have tooth decay and stains.

So, limit types of foods from your diet. When you eat these foods, try to remove those food particles completely.

8. Clean teeth with all-out effort after each meal

As braces make it difficult to clean your teeth, you must go with an all-out effort to remove all the food debris and plaque.

That means you have to use all methods of tooth cleaning such as brushing, flossing, and rinsing the mouth.

Doing only a single thing isn’t going to help you if you want to prevent yellow teeth and decay. Moreover, you have to clean your teeth after each meal.

Some people miss their tooth-cleaning after lunch because they have to stay in the office or school. Don’t do that.

You should follow some tooth cleaning methods even after taking food or snacks every time. That’s how you can get rid of yellow or brown stains on teeth from braces.

9. Avoid tooth whitening products

Using tooth whitening products like whitening strips or strong whitening toothpaste can make the situation worse. Though it may remove stains from the exposed area of teeth, it can’t whiten the covered area. So, you will have uneven teeth.

10. Perform regular professional dental cleaning

You can’t remove all the debris and plaques from your mouth and teeth completely, even if you try your absolute best, especially while wearing braces. The only solution for that is performing a regular professional dental cleaning or tooth scaling.

In normal individuals, dentists advise you to do that twice in every year. And, when you wear braces, you shouldn’t miss that. In fact, you should visit your dentist more often for professional teeth cleaning if you’re a braces wearer.

A dentist will also help you teach how to clean teeth with braces. So, learn it and follow the technique.

11. Quit smoking or chewing tobacco

Chemical substances present in tobacco or smoking materials are very dangerous for your general health as well as oral health.

Chemical like tar or nicotine causes teeth staining. When braces are attached to teeth, it can cause more damage. Moreover, you are at high risk of developing various diseases like oral cancer or lung cancer.

Even if you clean your mouth properly, you may still have yellow or brown teeth because of them. So, you must quit smoking and chewing tobacco to prevent yellow discoloration of teeth and fatal diseases.

12. Use special cleaning tools for braces

Cleaning teeth with braces requires special tools. You can use those tools which you use without braces, but they may be not very effective.

Now a day, it’s getting easier to clean teeth with braces because of the availability of various tools or braces kits.

So, you can buy those to clean the mouth easily and properly with braces.

Toothbrush for braces

You should use a toothbrush that can remove debris and plaques from the maximum area of teeth and brackets. Moreover, it shouldn’t damage your braces and their components.

Some toothbrushes are specially designed in that way for braces. You can buy an electric toothbrush or a non-electric toothbrush that’s more helpful for braces.

Floss for braces

Special types of floss for braces, such as water flosser, can be to get the maximum benefits of tooth cleaning. It has the property to eliminate food particles as well as plaque from the margin of gums and interdental space.

13. Following orthodontist’s advice

The success of orthodontic treatment depends not only on treatment planning and braces but also on the activity of the patient. Your orthodontist will give you many instructions and advice to follow from the first day to the last day of treatment.

Some of those instructions are to keep the mouth healthy and prevent tooth staining. So, always follow the instruction given by your orthodontist and get the best outcome after the treatment.

Also, check out the ways to whiten your teeth with braces and rid of white spots on teeth after braces.

How to get rid of braces stains after braces?

What will happen if you already have teeth stains or you see your teeth turn yellow after the removal of braces? How to remove those stains?

Nothing to worry about. A dentist can help you to solve this problem. You only can remove those excess stains with tooth whitening products or treatment after braces are removed or it will cause uneven tooth discoloration.

Here is the process to get rid of braces stains after braces.

1. Using whitening products recommended by your dentist.

After removal of braces, you can use whitening toothpaste, strips, or mouthwash to get rid of yellow stains. However, you should wait for a month to use it as the tooth remains sensitive.

Always use ADA-approved tooth whitening agents, as many products can be harmful.

Check this article to know about it.

2. Professional dental cleaning.

Orthodontists recommend performing professional tooth cleaning or scaling after braces because it’s common to have tartar, plaque, and stains after braces. This will also remove glues that are used for braces attached to teeth.

3. Tooth whitening treatment.

If you can’t remove the stain at home, you must consult with a dentist to get rid of it. He will perform professional bleaching or tooth whitening treatment to make your teeth brighter like before by eliminating stains.

What causes braces to stain teeth, and How it happens?

First of all, tooth staining occurs due to the build-up of plaque and tartar. But, how does this occur?

When we take food, a small portion of it deposits on the teeth, especially at the gum margins, space between teeth, and difficult to clean areas. Then, bacteria act there and form plaques and tartar.

If you don’t or can’t clean those food particles and plaques, this results in tooth discoloration, tooth decay, or gum diseases.

Wearing braces make it hard to clean your mouth and teeth thoroughly. As a result, there is more chance to accumulate plaque and tartar, eventually getting yellow teeth.

So, if you fail to maintain oral hygiene with braces, you should get ready to see stained teeth after the removal of braces.

Another process of teeth staining is a chemical reaction between teeth and other substances. This happens when you take acidic or sugary drinks or foods and smoke.

They cause chemical reactions with substances of teeth or enamel and lead to yellow or brown discoloration of teeth.

There may be other important risk factors and the reason why teeth turn yellow with braces.

Check our other articles to know in detail.

Takeaways

You have to be careful all the time to prevent braces stains or get rid of them while wearing them. Prevent or eliminate the responsible factors to get rid of braces stains. You should follow your orthodontist’s instructions, clean your braces and teeth regularly using ideal methods, and take braces-friendly foods to protect teeth from turning yellow.

Teeth straightening with braces need a lot of sacrifices. But, in the end, you get a beautiful smile. So, you should maintain braces to prevent stains that affect your beauty.

Meanwhile, if you have stained teeth after braces removal, you can consult with your dentist and perform tooth whitening treatment.