Is It Complicated to Whiten Your Teeth When You Have Braces?
Posted on: 26 July 2018
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The objective of dental braces is to make your teeth (and smile) as perfect as possible. But there are a number of other ways in which you might want to make your smile more beautiful, and teeth whitening will be an obvious choice. It's not impossible to whiten your teeth when you have braces, but your approach will need to accommodate the presence of the braces for the best possible results.
Professional Whitening
Having a dentist whiten your teeth will achieve the desired results (which are largely immediate). Though this is perhaps not the most cost-effective method, it can overcome the complications of teeth whitening at home when you have braces, since your dentist will only whiten the visible enamel, essentially whitening around the braces.. But what complications can arise when you attempt to whiten at home?
Whitening at Home
Most over-the-counter teeth whitening kits require a whitening solution to be put into an applicator tray, which is then worn in your mouth for the specified duration of time. When you have braces, the applicator tray isn't going to be able to form a flat surface against your teeth, so the results can be lacking. You shouldn't attempt to overcome this by increasing the frequency and duration of the treatments either. Those specifications are in place so that the hydrogen peroxide whitening solution doesn't damage your dental enamel. But this can be overcome with a more appropriate applicator tray.
The Applicator Tray
You could have your dentist produce a custom-made applicator tray that takes your braces into consideration, allowing the whitening solution to come into contact with the surfaces of your teeth that are not covered by the braces. This resembles a mouthguard that fits perfectly over your braces.
When Your Braces Are Removed
Regardless of whether you whiten at home or have a dentist whiten for you, professional whitening will be required when your braces come off. The portions of your teeth that were directly beneath the brackets of your braces will not have been whitened. This means that you will have small, squarish shapes of discolouration on each tooth, directly where each tooth was affixed to a bracket. These patches can be whitened to match the rest of your teeth, but precision is required, so this should be done by your dentist.
Your smile will look great when your braces come off, but remember that whitening when the braces are in place is going to need to take them into consideration to get the results you want.