By Orthodontic Gallery on Brace After Care and Dental Hygiene.
Taking Care of Your Braces
So you’ve had your braces fitted, you’re one step closer to your dream straight smile. But now you need to take care of them.
Your commitment to maintaining your braces is the key to ensuring you achieve successful results from your Orthodontic treatment. Taking simple steps in cleaning and caring for braces, can drastically improve the outcome of their use.
We know this sounds daunting but fear not our brace wearing friends, our experts have some helpful tips to make taking care of your braces a breeze.
Keeping Braces Clean
If you have fixed braces, it is very important to brush diligently to keep them clean and maintain excellent oral hygiene.
You’ll need to allow more than two minutes for brushing now – ensure every hard-to-reach area behind the brackets and wires gets thoroughly cleaned as plaque loves hiding between them!
Doing so will also help avoid staining around your brace bracket that cannot be reversed if left unattended.
Interdental Brush
To keep your teeth and braces in tip-top shape, an interdental brush is the perfect tool for reaching those tricky areas. Ideally, you should be giving your teeth a quick brush after every meal.
Not able to give that quick toothbrush after a meal? Don’t worry; rinsing with water between meals can help flush out some of the pesky food particles stuck around brackets and wires.
For extra precautionary measures, consider taking a travel size fluoride mouthwash with you when you eat out – now there’s no excuse for neglecting good oral hygiene!
Invisalign Aligners
If you are having Invisalign treatment you will already be aware of the benefit of being able to remove your aligners for eating, drinking and special occasions.
But you need to remember to wear them for 22hour per day to achieve your desired results! So don’t forget to put them in whenever you can.
Visit Your Dentist and Hygienist
At your Orthodontic check-ups, we’ll ensure that the progress of any braces or other dental appliances is on track. But don’t forget about routine visits to your dentist!
Regular comprehensive exams help keep teeth and gums healthy for years to come; so stay proactive with preventive oral care.
Additionally, if hard plaque starts building up due to a lack of hygiene maintenance between appointments – it can begin impeding movement from corrective treatments like braces, so make sure you get those appointments in with hygienists as well!
Avoid Certain Foods & Drinks
Ideally you should eliminate sugary, fizzy or acidic drinks like cola and wine. But we know that’s a massive ask, we couldn’t do it either!
But try to avoid them as best you can. Be mindful when you have them and try to drink through a straw.
Sugary foods should also be avoided or limited to mealtimes; Sugar increases your risk of acid erosion and decay. The same goes for acidic foods like citrus fruits.
You will also need to limit anything that might stain your teeth; Revealing small white squares when your brace comes off! Try to steer clear of red wine, coffee and ketchup. If it would stain your t-shirt, it will stain your teeth!
Try to steer clear of hard and chewy treats too!
Try A Water Flosser
Investing in your oral health post-brace treatment pays off – and can be made even easier with the help of a water flosser!
This tool uses pulsated streams to eradicate plaque and food debris from both teeth and gums, making cleaning around brackets quick, painless – yet effective.
While not for everyone due to costs, this option certainly makes keeping clean simpler than ever before.
Emergencies
Serious orthodontic emergencies are rare, but broken braces or long wires can cause problems.
For Orthodontic Gallery patient’s, if you do have an issue, please contact us via email or telephone for advice or an emergency appointment.
Outside our normal opening hours, please leave your details on our answer machine and we will call you back as soon as we can.
In the mean time, you can relieve any irritation caused by broken braces or long wires by covering them with orthodontic wax until you can get in to see us.
Treatment at Orthodontic Gallery
At Orthodontic Gallery, we are committed to providing our patients with exceptional care. We ensure their comfort and successful completion of treatment throughout the entire braces journey – before fitting all the way until after they have been removed!
After your braces have been fitted, one of our skilled experts will give you a brief on how to keep it clean and provide helpful advice for dealing with any unexpected situations that may arise from time-to-time. And of course you have this blog to refer back to if you forget anything!
Additionally, each patient receives an exclusive Orthodontic maintenance kit equipped with tools essential for maintaining good oral hygiene during brace wear!
If you would like to know more about caring for your braces or need to discuss a problem with us, get in touch today and we will do everything we can to help to ensure your braces are well taken care of!