How Easy Is It to Whiten Your Teeth When You Have Braces?

Achieving the smile of your dreams can require a prolonged effort in some cases. This is certainly the case when your dentist suggests you see an orthodontist who suggests that you need braces. Braces require a commitment, but it's a worthwhile effort. While your teeth are well on the way to being straight and aligned, what about their colour? In addition to the alignment that will be achieved by wearing the braces for the prescribed length of time, you might also want your teeth to be white and shining. There are numerous tooth whitening products that can achieve this, but can you do this type of whitening when you have braces?

At Home

Tooth whitening at home can be the most cost-effective option, but you shouldn't commence any type of treatment without consulting your dentist or orthodontist. It might be the case that some types of available whitening solutions can be harmful in your particular circumstances. It's not as though they would necessarily be harmful to you, but you don't want to undertake any type of whitening solution that could potentially damage any of the components of your braces. It might simply be that you'll be better off using a whitening system that has a lower intensity of hydrogen peroxide.

A Specialist Approach

Your dentist can certainly perform a whitening treatment, but if you would prefer to do it yourself at home, they might suggest a specific approach. This could be using a whitening toothpaste in conjunction with a whitening pen, wherein the solution is applied directly to the teeth. A whitening solution that requires a plastic applicator tray might not be all that beneficial, as your braces can impede the applicator tray's ability to evenly disperse the whitening solution. However, your dentist could fabricate a mouthguard that can take your braces into consideration and act as an applicator tray.

When Your Braces Are Removed

Additional whitening treatment can be required when your braces are removed. The portions of your dental enamel that were covered with the brackets of your braces would not have received treatment, and so you might be left with small, square-shaped portions of your teeth that are not as white as the rest of your enamel. This is when your dentist should perform the whitening, as they will be able to precisely fill in these discolored portions of your teeth to give you true uniformity of colour.

Some additional care is required when you have braces and want to whiten your teeth. But still, it's not impossible to achieve a white smile while your teeth are being straightened.