Keep teeth healthy while you restore your smile. When you get braces put on your teeth, it’s tempting to ignore your oral hygiene routine. After all, the braces are fixing your teeth for you, right? But it’s actually more important than ever to clean teeth with braces. That’s because the braces themselves can trap food particles in your mouth and promote common dental problems ranging from bad breath to cavities.
Best Ways to Clean and Maintain Braces
This is no time to leave your toothbrush in the medicine cabinet. Follow these tips to ensure your smile is healthy, white, and straight when your braces come off.
- Clean Regularly: You actually need to be cleaning your teeth more often now that you have braces. Try to brush your teeth after every time you eat something. If a brush is not available, at least swish your mouth with water.
- Protect the Braces: Vigorous brushing can actually damage your braces. Use a soft bristle toothbrush, don’t press too hard, and clean the teeth using a slow circular motion. Be sure you can feel the bristles of the brush below the wires of the braces.
- Floss Regularly: Flossing can be trickier when you have braces on, but it’s essential. Make sure that the floss passes behind the wires of the braces and is able to clean fully in the crevices between the teeth – finding floss that is stiff on one end makes this easier. Floss slowly and gently to avoid damaging the wires of the braces.
- Use an Antibacterial Mouthwash: Irritation from braces can cause mild swelling of the gum tissue. You can relieve the swelling and further clean teeth with braces by swishing with an antibacterial mouthwash.
- Be Diligent: It’s easy to follow a good oral health routine for a day, week, or month and then let bad habits start to creep back in. Remember, it’s now more important than ever to clean your teeth carefully and regularly. Make it a priority right at the top of your list.
- Use an Interdental Toothbrush: Think of this is a small, vertical toothbrush. It’s a simple tool that helps you clean the areas that brushing and flossing miss while cleaning the wires of the braces themselves.
Get Advice and Guidance You Deserve
Getting braces put on your teeth is not the end of the process, it’s just the start. You will need to see an orthodontist regularly, and you’re likely to have some questions along the way. Get all the help you need before, during, and after your braces are on from the team at MyOrthodontist.
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