Tips to Ensure Oral Hygiene When Wearing Braces

Wearing braces is an exciting step toward a healthier, straighter smile. It also means you’ll need to take extra care of your teeth. Braces create more spaces that can trap food, so keeping your teeth clean is more important than ever.

Keeping your teeth and gums healthy is easy with the right habits. Doing so ensures your orthodontic treatment will work as efficiently as possible. We asked our orthodontists to share some simple and effective tips for maintaining great oral hygiene.

Why is Oral Hygiene so Important?

Braces are an effective tool for straightening teeth and creating beautiful smiles. They achieve these amazing results due to the effectiveness of the brackets and wires to reposition teeth. Unfortunately, they are prone to trapping food and plaque while eating.

Plaque is a sticky film that builds up naturally on your teeth and gums. It contains bacteria that feed on food particles. Left to build up, it eventually hardens and turns into tartar. While plaque can be removed with regular brushing and flossing, tartar needs to be removed professionally. Untreated, tartar buildup can cause the following:

• Bad breathe
• Damage tooth enamel
• Cavities and tooth decay
• Gum disease

Oral health is vitally important for the success of your orthodontic treatment. In serious cases, poor oral hygiene can delay orthodontic treatment.

Brushing and Flossing Regularly

Brushing and flossing are the foundations of an effective oral hygiene routine. Keeping teeth, gums and brackets clean will remove plaque and help prevent tartar buildup and gum disease.

Regularly flossing your teeth helps remove food particles stuck between your teeth. In addition to cleaning between the teeth, you need to clean the hard-to-reach sports between the wires, brackets and teeth. Here are our recommendations on how to keep your mouth healthy while wearing braces.

1. Remove elastics: If you are wearing them.
2. Rinse your mouth with water: This helps loosen any food particles stuck in your braces.
3. Use a soft-bristled toothbrush: Brush at a 45-degree angle to clean above and below the brackets. Gently scrub the front, back, and chewing surfaces of each tooth.
4. Brush the wires: Gently brush along the wire to remove any debris caught between the brackets.
5. Brush for at least two minutes: Spend about 30 seconds on each section of your mouth to ensure you’ve covered all areas.
6. Rinse your mouth with water: And visually check your teeth and braces for any food that may have been missed.
7. Mouthwash: Use the recommended mouthwash for extra protection against bacteria buildup.

Electric toothbrushes and water flossers may help with cleaning hard-to-reach spots. 

Cleaning Teeth After Meals

As best practice, we recommend brushing your teeth after every meal. If you can’t brush and floss right after a meal, there are still ways to help keep your teeth and braces clean:

1. Rinse with water: Swishing water around in your mouth helps remove food particles stuck in your braces and on your teeth.
2. Chew sugar-free gum: Sugar-free gum can help stimulate saliva. This naturally cleans your teeth and neutralizes acids that can cause cavities.
3. Carry a travel toothbrush: A quick brush without toothpaste can help remove food particles until you can brush properly later.

These quick steps can help keep your mouth feeling fresh and minimize the buildup of food and plaque when you’re on the go.

Maintaining good eating habits

Food selection is equally important when wearing braces. Certain foods, like sticky or hard snacks, can damage your braces. Avoiding foods like chewy candy, popcorn, and crunchy snacks helps prevent damage to brackets and wires. Our orthodontists suggest eating softer foods that do not require strenuous chewing.

Additionally, making healthy lifestyle choices, such as a balanced diet rich in vitamins and minerals, supports your dental health and the effectiveness of your braces. Drinking water and avoiding soft drinks will help you maintain a clean and healthy mouth throughout your treatment. These choices ensure that your braces stay in good condition and your smile stays bright!

Taking Responsibility For Your Oral Health

Oral hygiene is foundational for orthodontic treatment and results. Ensuring your mouth, teeth and gums are healthy reduces the risk of tooth decay and gum disease slowing treatment progress. Maintaining your oral health allows your orthodontist to focus on creating a straighter, brighter smile in the shortest possible time.

MP Orthodontics is an orthodontic practice based in Cheltenham, Melbourne. Working from the belief that orthodontic treatment is much more than working with teeth and creating smiles, treating orthodontists – Dr Martin Poon and Dr Geoff Hall – approach patients as people first. Their approach is to work together and plan and implement treatment that meets each individual’s needs. Drawing on 30 plus years experience of helping children gain confidence through tailored treatment, MP Orthodontics, is a truly unique orthodontic practice.