How To Maintain Good Oral Hygiene During Orthodontic Treatment

Brushing your teeth regularly is essential, but it is even more demanding when you are in orthodontic treatment. You are expected to feel happy when you finally wear the braces, but this is a reminder that proper dental care is essential. Especially during this time, to ensure you do not develop cavities or ugly stains on your teeth after getting your teeth aligned.

Here are some tips by San Antonio Dentist on how to keep teeth healthy while straightening teeth:

Caring for the Teeth when Wearing Invisalign Braces

1. You must brush and clean your teeth first

Invisalign must be worn for 24 hours, except when eating or drinking other than water. Nevertheless, you must clean your teeth by brushing and flossing before placing your aligners back on.

If not, debris will be in between you and your aligners, making cleaning food particles between the teeth and the aligners difficult. This debris cannot be washed off by saliva and remains applied against the teeth for several hours. They become prone to cavities and tooth decay.

Therefore, it is advisable to always have a toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss kit with you at all times. If you forget, you may try gargling your mouth with water to wash off any food residuals. However, brushing is less efficient than this!

2. Keep your trays clean

One must ensure that their Invisalign aligners are cleaned, which is very important. Otherwise, when the trays are not cleaned, they become coated with plaque and bacteria. Once you place the trays back in, all that plaque and bacteria are deposited in your mouth.

Follow these steps to keep your Invisalign clean:

• Clean them for three minutes at least once daily using an Invisalign cleaning product. Rinse the trays thoroughly and gently brush the surface of the trays with a soft bristle brush.
• Clean your trays with a soft-bristled toothbrush and a mild cleaning solution before bed and after waking up. It helps to eliminate the daily collected bacteria, food residuals, and sugars that may stick to the teeth.
• Always clean the trays with warm water, not hot water, each time you take them out and place them back again. This helps reduce the formation of plaque to some extent.
• It is also essential to store your Invisalign aligners in their case to keep them hygienically clean and free from bacteria. Leaving your trays in the open air tends to contract bacteria and germs.

3. Do not consume any beverages other than water while wearing the aligners

You have only to consume water while wearing the Invisalign aligners. It must be removed for any other kind of beverage! Intake of juice, coffee, pop, or alcohol will stain your aligners, and at the same time, they are not suitable for the teeth.

Any time you consume a beverage while wearing the aligners, some of it is beneath the trays to interact with the teeth. As a reminder, even small particles of food or sugary substances wedged between your teeth and your aligners will be unreachable by your saliva.

This residual sugar or acid from the beverage stays on your teeth more or less for quite some time. It is even worse if the drink is sweetened or contains some acidity, which negatively impacts teeth.

Keeping the Teeth Clean When Wearing Braces

Floss or brush often: If you cannot avoid consuming carbohydrates, try to do this more often with a bristle breed that is perfect for your teeth.

Taking care of your teeth during the brace treatment is relatively time-consuming and more critical than when you do not have a brace. The brackets and wires could also collect much food and plaque directly on the teeth surfaces and around the gums, leading to tooth decay and gum issues. Moreover, your teeth enamel can be permanently damaged if your teeth and brackets are not clean.

Follow these steps to best care for your teeth while wearing braces:

1. Remove elastics before brushing

A soft brush and toothpaste containing fluoride should be used for proper teeth cleaning.

Stroke the tooth and gum gently for 10 seconds with a narrow circular motion while placing the bristles at 45 degrees from the surface of the teeth. Use a soft-bristle brush to bring the bristles between the wire and the tooth without damaging the braces.

2. Get an interdental toothbrush

An interdental or interproximal brush is a brush that fits into the gaps between the braces and teeth. This makes it useful in cleaning teeth that are hard to access because of an orthodontic appliance. This may also be applied when the patient has already eaten for pre-cleaning the oral cavity and before the brush approach.

However, it is essential to understand that interdental brushes should be used in addition to regular brushing. It is not an alternative to a soft-bristled toothbrush!

3. Use a water flosser

Similarly, just as an interdental toothbrush is not a substitute for the standard soft-bristled toothbrush, a water flosser is not a substitute for conventional wax-thread floss. Nonetheless, it is handy during orthodontic treatment, as it aligns your teeth using braces or similar orthodontic appliances.

A water flosser is a device that focuses water under pressure toward the areas with deposits and substances that may be difficult to remove, such as bacteria, plaque, and food residues. It can effectively cover every corner and all difficult-to-access portions that harbor undesirable dirt. This is beneficial for maintaining the cleanliness of teeth behind the brackets and wires and for enhanced dental health.

Remember also to floss at least once daily or as your dentist prescribes. You can use a floss threader to remove the plaque from the areas you cannot reach, or traditional wax floss because it glides easily between your teeth.

4. Follow a braces-friendly diet

Diet plays a significant role in how clean your teeth are when you wear braces. You must stick to the right diet that you eat while using braces. This helps maintain strong teeth and protect braces or any other orthodontic appliances from being damaged.

It is necessary to avoid foods that are hard, sticky, crunchy, etc. These can interfere with the wires and bands used in making braces or even pulling out the cables. You may also have to go for several additional dental appointments. It is inconvenient and takes more time, increasing your treatment time.

Final thoughts

Orthodontic treatment concerns the aesthetics of the look but also enormously impacts oral and dental health. If you follow the tips and recommendations provided by San Antonio Dentist in this blog, you can maintain good oral hygiene throughout the orthodontic treatment.