Metal Mouth Message Board

I know a lot of questions get posted with regards to whitening your teeth, but I think most of them are post-braces questions. My question basically revolved around how many of you have noticed your teeth getting significantly whiter while you are still in braces, due to better brushing and flossing habits? I'm getting braces soon, and one of the things I'm hoping is that, in addition to straightening my teeth and fixing my overbite, my teeth will get brighter as I get more in the habit of taking care of them.

I'm not certain about them getting whiter. I would rather they get whiter than darker though. I do plan to get teeth whitening when I get my braces off.

- Missing Tooth -

I haven't noticed my teeth getting whiter, although my dental hygiene is tons better then before I wore braces.

If you are having brackets put on your teeth I don't think you would want them to get whiter while in braces...

think about it - the area around your brackets would be slowly getting whiter, meanwhile the area UNDER your brackets would stay the same color... so when your brackets come off you have pretty white teeth, except for the yellow square on each tooth.

I don't know about whiter, but my teeth are definately cleaner.

I know chances are you already know this, but I just want to add to be extra extra extra careful with any whitening products you use while you have your braces on, even if it's just toothpaste with whitening stuff in it.

I got my braces temporarily off about a week ago and thankfully I didn't have any marks, but I was really worried when I was about to look at my teeth for the first time. I can't even imagine seeing whiter teeth around the brackets and then darker where the brackets were, even if it's just a little. It's not worth whiter teeth while in braces to have multi-colored teeth while you're out of them.

Normal whitening toothpaste should be okay, but I'd try to stay away from anything stronger if possible just to air on the side of caution.

Eve

Bianca wrote:If you are having brackets put on your teeth I don't think you would want them to get whiter while in braces...

I completely agree. I DO NOT want my teeth getting whiter while in braces lol. I am planning on getting them whiten by my dentist once the braces are off but still...I believe you have to wait a few days/week or so, before getting them white so I wouldn't want to be walking around with uneven color on my teeth. lol

But my teeth are much cleaner now...I do wash them about 6 times a day. Yesterday I broke my record and washed them 8 times!! lol

Too true, how funny would it look with little squares on your teeth.

I want to ask though, those of you wanting to whiten your teeth when the braces are off, what will you use? Zoom whitening (laser), the peroxide gels in a tray, what do you think is best. Some are so expensive. All the girls at my dentists recommended the gel in a specially made tray, as it's less expensive than the laser whitening, but gets the same results, just over a bit of time.

my teeth are a bit whiter

KK wrote:due to the rotation of some teeth they look revolting in a couple of places. The teeth that have rotated are now showing the parts that up till then were hidden by the teeth beside them ... and now they look gross! I have my first post braces appointment with my hygienist next week ... and I'm hoping she can do something for them!

I had the same issue with a couple of nasty looking places that were 'revealed' due to teeth movement. I had a cleaning appointment last week and the hygenist was able to clean everything up very nicely.