Metal Mouth Message Board

I really need some help! I have clear ligs around my ceramic brackets (upper and lower). I try and avoid food that stains, but I ate some yellow coloured rice two days ago. Despite immediately realising that my ligs were stained and brushing my teeth straightaway, the ligs remain a bright yellow colour. My ortho is away for a few weeks and so I can't get him to change my ligs and now I'm pretty desperate as it looks awful.

Is there anything I can do/ buy that will take away some of the staining?

Any help much appreciated

You could maybe try hydrogen peroxide if you can get hold of any. It's usually sold in chemists, Boots or Superdrug sell it in 6% or 9% solutions.
A 6% solution should be diluted 2:1 with water (2 parts water to 1 part HP) and stronger solutions accordingly. Swish some round the ligs for a minute or two, or try brushing the ligs with it.
It has a mild bleaching action and might help with lightening that yellow staining a bit.

That Aquafresh Extreme Clean (without Whitening) is marvelous.

Got some last night, tried it on my curry stained ligs and there's a definate improvement. They are not 100% clean, but they are much less greeny-yellow!!!

Big smiles all round!

IB

Thanks for all your replies

Lucyloop: have just bought some Aquafresh extreme clean and will be using it from now on to see if I can get any improvement.

Will also get some of that hydrogen peroxide solution, Lisa65. I think a bleaching solution is what I need to get some of this staining off.

Just wondered how common it is for people to change their own ligs. My ortho has never mentioned it to me. Do you need to buy special equipment to do it?

I don't think Ortho's really would recommend changing your own ligs, but each Ortho to their own.

I think I would be competent enough to change mine, but I have heard that the Ligs degenerate over time and loosen up which is also part of the movement process. By placing on new ligs again it almost has the effect of doing an adjustment on yourself and whilst that might sound like a great idea, it might not be so great if it moves teeth in the wrong direction.

It might be worth speaking to your Ortho to see whether they are happy for you to do that. They might be!

My ligs stained a real nasty illuminous yellow when I ate a byriani a couple of months ago, it looked awful. I tried whitening tooth paste and it worked to a certain extent over a period of a few days.

So now I have banished myself from eating curry other than the day or two leading up to my adjustments.. Which is a good thing for my waist line