Enamel staining

[anerina]

Hi all!

New to the board and I have a few things I wanted to check with others about... I'm currently wearing clear brackets (damon) on my top teeth and the staining on my teeth is out of this world. I go to the hygienist every 3 months and she uses a scaler to get the staining off. Then within a couple weeks they're terrible again. The staining is mostly on my front teeth, above the brackets. I am vigilant about cleaning my teeth. My ortho and the techs said it's because of the glue around the bracket but I"m not so sure. I had metal braces a loooong time ago and never had any issues with staining. I'm concerned that even with the brackets off the teeth are still going to stain. Has anyone experienced extreme staining during their treatment?

I drink coffee, no tea. I don't drink red wine. Those seem to be the items that I get asked about.

[djspeece]

They may be saying that it's the glue that is staining, vs. the tooth. I did a search on "staining" which led to many results, but some of them might be helpful or at least reassuring:
search.php?keywords=staining&fid%5B0%5D=13

Best of luck to you. Some of the staining I had turned out to be more of a product of the ambient light source: under some light bulbs, my teeth seemed almost yellow; in more natural light or sun they didn't look quite so bad.

[anerina]

Thanks, Dan. Fingers crossed that it goes away permanently once these brackets are off. My teeth look terrible, and the plastic brackets enhance the grossness.

[djspeece]

The only possible consolation is that it looks much worse to you than to anyone else. I hated the way my smile looked; the brackets which were supposed to match the color of my teeth (more or less) made them look gray in photographs. Best of luck to you.

[trifecta]

I think staining is a fairly common issue with clear brackets plus the wires are not clear. Hopefully the staining is the bracket or the bonding material which is likely the case and not the actual enamel tooth structure. Just keep up with the good home care and things should be ok in the long run. If you are concerned you can use prescription high fluoride toothpaste available from your dentist for additional protection, won't help with staining but will with with any potential demineralization. Unfortunately you may have to just tolerate the appliance discoloration in the short term. Best of luck!