Anyone else regret their ceramics?

[verso]

They're impossible to keep from getting stained -- the clear ligatures, that is. I've avoided almost every food that stains -- and there's a lot of them to avoid (coffee, curry, mustard, ketchup, wine, basically anything with color) -- and I've only had my braces a week now.

They're yellow. I mean YEL-LOW. Like, neon almost. It's unbelievable. And I've been brushing my teeth religiously after eating every time (~4 times a day).

And they just make my teeth look yellow. Granted, my teeth weren't all that white to begin with, but they look way more yellow than they actually are.

Overall, not a big deal as I'll just have them put a solid color ligature on (any suggestions?) but it sort of defeats the purpose of ceramic/clear braces. Not that I payed any more for the ceramic braces than the metal, but it still kind of sucks.

Anyone else? Thoughts? Suggestions?

[Beckett]

Totally don't regret mine, top and bottom. As for staining ligs, go for smoke or silver. The smoke are hardly visible at all, despite looking very grey before going on. You already have a silver wire, so it's not like ceramic brackets will be invisible, just less obvious. I haven't had any staining, but I'm also not a coffee, tea, or wine drinker. I do eat spaghetti though, but even the tomatoe sauce doesn't affect it.

I had smoke ligs for two adjustments, but this time got funky with my kid and we went for houses from Harry Potter. So he's got red and gold, and I've got blue and silver. It's fun, and really, no one cares what they look like but you. Go for fun.

[verso]

^ Thanks for the reply.

I'm going to see if they can squeeze me in Monday and put on the smoke or silver. These ligs right now are like tennis ball yellow-green... *sigh*

[kattiar]

I had a similar issue to begin with. I switched to smoke and haven't had an issue since.
Goodluck with the lig change. Your ortho may have suggestions on which shade will suit you best.

[verso]

Yeah smoke is probably the way to go. I'll see what my ortho has to say. I was going to try and hold out until my next appointment, but that's at the end of September. I can't wait that long.

[Beckett]

I think I'd want to get rid of stained neon green as quickly as possible too! Do you have any idea what food is responsible for the staining? I hear curry is notorious.

[verso]

I believe I *did* have mustard at one point and that probably didn't help, but the ligs were already turning pret-ty yellow all on their own before the mustard. I've given up coffee, curry, red wine... all my favorite foods basically.

[pantlover]

if it makes you regret ceramics a little bit less, my silver ligs turned that gross neon green/yellow after eating curry as well... and i have traditional metal braces.

[MissV]

My only regret is they are too big for my teeth...a/k/a on the bottom row the ceramics are almost the same size of the teeth which makes it look like I have 4-D teeth LOL!

[27braces88]

Yeah I agree with MIssV. The ceramic are fine on top but on my bottom teeth they are huge. I wish I'd asked for metal on the bottom. The metal are much smoother too, I think my bottom lip would have been happier with metal.

[verso]

Yeah the ceramic are pretty big and scratchy. Lol

I'm going to see my ortho tomorrow morning to have them switch out the ligs. I'll see what they suggest but if "smoke colored" ligs are an option, I'll probably go with that.

[verso]

So I was able to see my orthodontist this morning. Well, it was his assistant who saw me, and she switched the ligs out for silver ones. (I guess they don't have "smoke colored" or something?)

They *did* have two different clears though. They had the traditional clear that they put on originally and then a "pearl" clear that was a little more opaque but still slightly see-through. Almost went with the pearl and I may try it next time.

At this point, I'm happy with anything that isn't yellow/neon. So the silver ligs, while they may not be super incognito, are fine by me!

Interestingly enough, the assistant asked me what toothpaste I used and I said non-whitening Colgate. She recommended that I use the whitening, which was interesting because the OTHER assistant recommended that I don't. This assistant told me she had used whitening toothpaste all throughout her treatment and it wasn't an issue (her teeth look great). She said something about how it only really removes surface-stains and it's not truly "whitening."

Not sure who to believe but I'm thinking I'll split it 50-50 until I catch my orthodontist's ear and ask him myself.

[lmk]

I used whitening toothpaste but not every time I brushed. I had really white teeth before starting treatment so I figured it wasn't going to cause any problems. I did find it helped slightly with the staining. The one thing I figured out that stained the ligs the worse was soy sauce. Neon green was the result!

[Sunnygirl807]

I am getting braces on Friday. I was considering ceramics, but I don't know about the staining. Are the ligatures the archwire or the actual brackets that are staining?

[Johnnyboy]

I'm having my Damon top ceramic brackets replaced to metal ones on the 26th. Can't wait really don't like the ceramic ones as there to big and uncomfortable.