List of food that can discolour braces

[la7ush]

Hi all,

I am (and probably most of you are) very conscious of eating food that could potentially discoloured braces.
I thought that maybe we could start listing food that should be avoided while having clear braces such as Damon Clear, etc.

I will start with beetroot. I will have a beetroot soup for dinner tonight and will let you all know the result.

[catwanabee]

tumeric
tea
coffee
wine

[homegrown]

Good thread!

Just a quick tip. If im at home, i will have tea/coffee with a straw, thus bypassing all the front teeth ensuring no risk of staining. I also think that tea is low risk for staining, provided it has milk in it and you have some water to swish around your mouth after a cup.

Another one to add is curry.....sadly :(

[Ambrosia80]

Definitely black coffee.
It stains my clear Damon brackets, but especially my power chain. It was getting really bad, so I've decided I'm only going to drink it the last week before my adjustments (when I get a new chain).
And the brackets don't get too bad if I'm only having it one week out of every eight!

[TMJJill]

Honestly, I had the Damon clears on top and metal on bottom. With the SL braces, I didn't find any foods I needed to avoid. I didn't even have much discoloration with the clear powerchains.

Now, I know the elastics can discolor after time. I just found I didn't have any worries with my SL braces.

[NeilH]

I have found pasta and curry sauces to be the main culprits. The lighter colour elastics stain really quickly but I have found the dark blue ones I currently have fairing a little better.

[la7ush]

beetroot should be avoided. I just had a "bite" and it stained glue around the brackets straight away.
Luckily I managed to clean it.

How about e-ciggaretes? Anyone had any issues?

[jaime]

I drink black coffee copiously and I haven't really noticed a problem with the brackets or the ligs. I have clear ligs right now on top and was expecting noticeable staining. Maybe because my teeth are a bit yellow (nothing too bad), I don't notice any staining at all.

In fact, the only staining I've noticed is the glue they spread on my teeth seems to absorb colours. Maybe I'm just lucky but I haven't needed to avoid anything as far as staining is concerned.

[MrsCharisma]

Milk in tea?! Interesting...

I don't drink tea because it stains. With my coffee, I add creamer so it isn't so bad. I have given up on the clear/pearl ligs though because they'd only stay nice for like a week.

Otherwise, the top offender for me was tomato based pasta sauce.

[Ambrosia80]

Yep, definitely agree about tomato sauce, especially for my power chain.

[LuMu]

I've had my braces on for two weeks and have avoided curry and tomato based sauces (the big no-nos) but i've still got a bit of staining on my ligaments - I'm wondering if its all the tea I drink? Anyone got recommendations about types of tea that mightn't stain so bad - I was thinking maybe peppermint / chamomile ?

[samoorelaw]

One word: mustard! Mustard even stains grey/silver/smoke ligs!

[Ciara]

Nothing! I have metal ties instead of elastics and have no staining. The ceramic brackets themselves don't stain.

If you want to know what stains elastics/powerchains then the list is endless:
anything with turmeric (often pumpkin and tomato soups have this to enhance the colour)
curry
coffee
tea
wine
anything with a tomato based sauce
grape juice

[sirwired]

I had metal braces and silver ligs, and nothing stains those, but I do know that hot tea stained my teeth horribly. I was horrified at what they looked like compared to the nice, white, "square" that was revealed during a bracket repo. The braces inhibit the natural "wiping" action of your lips, so the stain doesn't get wiped off. (In the same fashion that a mug you don't wipe gets tea-stained really easy.) I gave up tea entirely after that until the braces came off.

[Beckley816]

I'm surprised no one said mustard!