When you get traditional braces, oral health care becomes a little different. Traditional braces, with various metal components and cemented pieces, will stay on your teeth for months or years. As such, the way you take care of your mouth will have to change in order to accommodate these things. If you follow some simple steps and are properly prepared, the changes you make to your daily dental care routine should be easy to implement. In fact, the oral hygiene habits that you learn and practice when you are wearing braces will serve your mouth well after the dental braces are removed.
Improving your at home tooth cleaning regimen
Most of us learned to brush our teeth with a regular, straight (probably hard or medium bristle) toothbrush. Flossing was done intermittently if at all. If this is your current routine, you will need to step up your game, especially if you are getting dental braces. First of all, if you are going to use a toothbrush, it should have soft bristles. Hard or medium bristle toothbrushes will wear away the enamel of your teeth and irritate/damage your delicate gums.
A better solution is to invest in a water pick (Or similar products by Waterpik, Sonicare, and Panasonic, etc.) for cleaning your teeth. A dental irrigator forces a narrow jet of water through a fine tip. In a way, a water pick can be thought of as a high pressure hose for cleaning the mouth. The irrigator has the advantage of being able to reach more crevices and places than a toothbrush.
The other useful investment that you may not currently use in your home oral care routine is an interdental cleaner. While there are several different designs, the basic concept to all interdental cleaners is that they can be placed directly between teeth at any spot. This is in contrast to dental floss which needs to be slid in between teeth all along its length. Obviously the arch wire of traditional braces makes flossing more difficult. Interdental cleaners are an affordable quick way to get around this issue (literally).
Always have a way to clean your teeth
People that wear braces are encouraged to buy or compile a travel kit for keeping their teeth clean. At a minimum, a travel kit for orthodontics patients should include:
- A toothbrush or battery operated water pick or cordless oral irrigator
- A small tube of toothpaste
- Interdental cleaners
- A bottle of mouthwash
Make sure that all of these products have the American Dental Association (ADA) Seal on them. This prestigious and meaningful mark means that a manufacturer’s product has earned a level of safety and effectiveness as determined by the principal dental health organization in the United States.
Food restrictions while wearing braces
While no one can tell you what to eat or not to eat when you are wearing braces, there are some foods that can be damaging to your braces. There is a financial cost to repairing damaged dental braces as well as the sacrifice of time. Not only is there time involved in extra dental visits, but damaging your braces extends the time that you must wear them for full orthodontic treatment. In actuality, the food restrictions for braces-wearers are not too extreme; most people can easily remove these foods from their diet.
Foods to avoid while wearing braces include:
- Sticky foods, for example
- Caramel
- Licorice
- Taffy
- Hard candy
- Chewing gum
- Nuts
- Uncut apples with skins
- Raw carrots
- Bagels
- Chips
- Corn on the cob
- Breads with chewy or hard crust
- Crunchy taco shells
- Pretzels
- Popcorn
It is also best to avoid excessively sugary foods and beverages. These things leave a sticky, sugary coating on the teeth, which is a feast for bacteria. These bacteria will cause tooth decay and gum disease. If you must drink sugary beverages, try drinking them through a straw. When these beverages are consumed through a straw they bypass the teeth (mostly) and are directly swallowed.
If you have the nervous habit of chewing on hard objects, you will need to get over it before you are fitted for dental braces. Hard objects that can damage orthodontia include ice cubes, pens and pencils, fingernails, straws, toothpicks, and any other hard object that you may absentmindedly put in your mouth. Unfortunately most people do these things without thinking about it.
Even after a chronic chewer “kicks the habit,” a particularly stressful event can lead a person back to thoughtless chewing. This behavior can damage dental braces and put you back in the orthodontist office. For the sake of your braces, ask your doctor or dentist about ways to curb these behaviors before you have orthodontic treatment.