With braces, it is more important than ever to keep your teeth and gums their healthiest. Fortunately, we have some great cleaning tips for braces. Braces and other orthodontic appliances create more opportunities for food particles and bacteria to collect and thrive. Getting braces requires adopting a new oral hygiene routine, good habits and our cleaning tips that promote the healthiest environment for your teeth and gums.
Caring For Your Braces
Braces are harder to keep clean because the brackets, wires, and other components create more surfaces for food particles, plaque, and bacteria to accumulate. With our cleaning tips and using tools such as electric toothbrushes brushes and water flossers ensure a thorough cleaning. Here are the main reasons why keeping braces clean is challenging:
- Food Traps: The brackets and wires create tiny spaces where food can easily get stuck. This makes it harder to remove debris with regular brushing.
- Harder to Brush: Braces block direct access to the tooth surface, making it difficult to reach all areas with a toothbrush. Special techniques and tools are often required to clean effectively.
- Plaque Buildup: The presence of braces increases the surface area where plaque can form, particularly around the brackets. If plaque isn’t removed, it can lead to tooth decay, gum disease, or decalcification (white spots) on the teeth.
- Challenging to Floss: Regular flossing becomes tricky because the wires block easy access between teeth. Special tools like floss threaders or orthodontic floss are needed to clean between teeth properly.
- Staining: Certain foods and drinks can more easily stain the brackets and the teeth around them, leading to uneven staining when the braces are removed.
Cleaning Tips For Braces
When you have braces you must be diligent in cleaning your teeth to avoid bad breath, swollen gums, discolored teeth and decay. If you remove plaque regularly during treatment, you’ll experience better results and reduced treatment time. Read these cleaning tips to help you keep your teeth and braces their best.
- Take it one tooth at a time. Our cleaning tips for braces include spending at least 10 seconds of brushing on each of your teeth. Make sure to pay close attention to the front side (bracket side) of your teeth, the back of your teeth as well as the chewing surfaces.
- Remember your angles. It is important for gum health to brush the top teeth with your brush angled down and the bottom teeth with your brush angled up. This will keep loose food particles from your teeth and gums and optimize your gum health.
- Always be prepared. To make sure you are taking the best care of your teeth with braces, it is imperative to take a toothbrush and toothpaste with you wherever you go. Having your toothbrush with you will allow you to remove sticky food particles after eating in a timely manner which helps avoid plaque build-up.
- Fluoride is your friend. Fluoride helps prevent cavities. Be sure to brush with fluoride toothpaste. Rinse with fluoride mouthwash at least once a day.
- Floss, floss and floss. Our cleaning tips include flossing your teeth once a day. This is one of the most important cleaning exercises you can do to help prevent gum disease. Flossing will help prevent plaque from building in between your teeth thus reducing your risk of decay. Flossing also helps reduce bad breath.
- See your dentist twice a year. It is your job to clean your teeth every day. It’s our job to clean them professionally. Visit Dr. Martin regularly while in treatment, to get the deep, thorough cleaning that only a professional can provide.
How We Can Help
At Anthony Martin Dentistry, we are pleased to provide individualized, caring service because we know that every person and every smile is unique. For more cleaning tips for braces and to keep your teeth as healthy as possible during orthodontic treatment, check out the American Dental Association‘s braces tips or request a complimentary consultation with us today.
