Dental Care 101: Caring for your braces

Taking Care of Your Braces

Now that your braces are on, extra care must be taken to brush your teeth and gums better than ever before. There are three zones at risk for decay and gum disease; around the brackets, along the gums, and between the teeth. Here are our team's top tips for maintaining your orthodontic braces.

Food and plaque that collect can cause:

• stains
• cavities
• puffy, bleeding gums
• unpleasant odors
• slower tooth movement

1. Brushing

After every meal or a minimum 3 times per day. Remember, the most important time for to brush is right before bed.

2. Method

Don’t rush the brush! Make sure you are covering every tooth surface and over, under, around, and between every bracket. You may use a manual brush or power/rotary brush. In addition, you will require a proxy brush to clean effectively between the brackets and under the archwire.

3. Flossing

Just because you have braces on doesn’t mean the flossing should stop. Try getting some floss threaders to help out.

4. Rinsing

A flouride-containing mouth rinse is a great addition to your usual oral hygiene routine. Flouride helps to protect the teeth, kill bacteria that can cause decalcification (destruction of the teeth), and rejuvenates the flouride releasing glue used to hold the braces in place.

A couple other notes to keep your braces in great shape and your teeth healthy:

• Pressure from eating hard candy, pizza crust, or pencils, weaken the adhesive, but not enough for the bracket to become loose immediately.

• A little note about SWEETS! We know that you will likely eat something that contains sugar, however, when you do, please see that you brush or rinse your mouth immediately afterward. SWEETS cause DAMAGE to your teeth. The worst of all the sweets are soft drinks. It does not matter if the soft drink is diet or not, it will have the same effect on your teeth.

Your teeth will thank you if you follow these simple guidlines for caring for your orthodontic braces. Want to learn more? Contact us or read further on the site!