If you’ve recently gotten braces, you’re probably still getting used to caring for them. Taking care of your teeth without braces can be tricky sometimes, so with braces on, you might feel like your oral health is impossible to keep up with. Here are a few ways to keep your teeth healthy and help your braces do their job.
Maintain Good Oral Hygiene
First off, it is important to maintain good oral hygiene and cleaning habits. When you get your braces on, your orthodontist should be able to instruct you on how to keep your teeth clean. They will likely give you some cleaning tools that will help you to work around the wires and brackets and clean every area of your teeth. For example, you’ll probably receive floss threaders, electronic toothbrushes, or even a water flosser. It is important to use the tools and instruments given to you by your orthodontist to effectively brush and floss your teeth daily.
Take Care of Your Teeth
Next, it is important to take good care of your teeth throughout the day. Of course, brushing your teeth throughout the day after meals will help you to maintain good oral health. However, your diet can also affect how much braces can help your teeth. People with braces shouldn’t eat hard or really chewy foods. These types of foods can be very sticky and difficult to remove from the teeth, brackets, and wires. If you regularly eat hard foods, sticky foods, or sugary, processed foods, your braces might develop breakage over time, and might not be as effective.
Get Routine Checkups
Finally, it is important to get routine checkups to make sure that your braces are doing their job. These routine checkups will often involve the switching of bands, the tightening or adjustment of wires, and could even involve the addition of hardware to correct your bite. They’ll also involve teeth cleaning and inspection to make sure that you don’t have any infections or issues. Your orthodontist will be able to tell you how often you need to schedule these types of visits in order to get the care that you need.
So, if you’ve just started your braces journey, don’t get discouraged if your teeth ache or if you’re overwhelmed at all the care steps that you need to do. By maintaining good oral hygiene, taking care of your teeth, and getting routine checkups, you’ll be helping your braces to do their job, and they’ll be off before you know it. As always, make sure to consult your orthodontist if you have additional questions about how to care for your braces or concerns specific to your oral health.
Check out this article on what you need to prepare for before getting braces!
