Braces are a highly effective way to straighten crooked teeth, amend bite problems, and close gaps in your smile. The treatment involves fixing brackets to the teeth linked with a wire to gradually push your teeth into the desired aligned position. While you can look forward to beautiful results following this treatment, you might worry that the fixtures can interfere with your usual oral capabilities.
For instance, you will still need to practice good oral hygiene to ensure that your smile stays healthy. Skipping this regimen may put your orthodontic treatment at risk.
You can keep your smile clean when you have braces when you use targeted techniques. Read on to find advice from your orthodontist that can encourage you to maximize oral hygiene benefits when you brush your teeth with braces.
Rinse Your Mouth Thoroughly
With fixtures adhered to your teeth, you may have a greater chance of trapping bits of food in your wires or brackets. Lingering food will encourage bacterial spread, which can weaken your teeth. To prevent this issue from affecting your smile, you should rinse your mouth frequently, especially after eating.
Rinsing should play a role in your oral hygiene routine as well. Swirl water around your mouth before you brush your teeth to get rid of an initial layer of build-up from your smile. This can make your oral hygiene regimen easier. Make sure you rinse your mouth after brushing and flossing your teeth too. This gets rid of excess toothpaste and other lingering residues from the cleaning process.
Brush with Purposeful Motions
The way that you brush your teeth may require adjustments in order to get your smile thoroughly clean when you have braces. Usually, you use circular motions across the whole surface of your teeth when brushing. But braces brackets will block you from accessing the entire area of your tooth.
You can counteract this disruption to your routine by angling your toothbrush as you brush. Begin by tilting your brush upward toward your gums and brushing above the brackets. This allows you to thoroughly clean your teeth and the tricky area near the gumline.
Then you should angle your brush downward and brush your teeth above the brackets. Finish this process by tilting your brush upward again and cleaning the area below the brackets. Sticking to this purposeful approach ensures that you do not miss any spots during this cleaning regimen.
Use gentle movements when you brush your teeth so that you do not accidentally hurt your braces with this action. If you do damage your oral appliances in any way, call your orthodontist right away for repairs.
Try Alternative Oral Hygiene Tools
A traditional manual toothbrush and string floss can do a good job of removing harmful residues from your smile. But you might want to try using alternative oral hygiene tools that can simplify and enhance the cleaning process when you have braces.
For instance, you can use angled brushes that can fit between braces and the surface of your teeth. Or you can try floss picks or a water flosser that can more easily maneuver between your teeth and braces equipment. Ask your orthodontist for additional advice that can maximize oral hygiene benefits during your braces treatment.