• 15 MAY 20
    • 0
    How to Clean Your Braces: A Guide

    How to Clean Your Braces: A Guide

    Cleaning your braces is arguably one of the most important aspects of having them installed. In between the wiring, the adhesive, and the various metal bits that poke and catch at everything they possibly can. Braces gather up a lot of muck on your teeth that can have severe effects on your dental health if not properly taken care of.

     

    Brushing 

    Brushing your teeth seems like a no brainer but, here we are. As per normal, you should be brushing your teeth on average twice a day. With or without braces, this should be the norm, but with braces, this becomes unbelievably important. The brackets, in particular, are big catchers for food and bacteria, meaning having a good scrub around them to make sure nothing has gotten stuck is crucial.

     

    Floss ‘til You Drop

    Flossing also sounds like something you should, quite frankly, be doing anyway. Yet, there’s merit to reminding everyone about this again. As well as that, flossing with braces becomes a fairly complicated experience to the uninitiated. For the most part, this comes in the form of the interdental brushes that are essentially smaller toothbrushes designed for getting in between small gaps. For those who like to be fancy, oral irrigators are also an option if you prefer to literally flush the food out of your mouth. If neither of those interest you then you can just do it the old fashioned way and floss as normal, though take care to thread both over and under the wires! Unsure? Your dentist or orthodontist can go through these techniques with you.

     

    A Rinse and a Gargle

    Are you sensing a pattern here? Because we sure are! Using mouthwash can be helpful in removing debris, giving you that extra fluoride to make your teeth nice and strong, and giving you fresh breath.

     

    Popcorn and Soft Drinks and Gum, Oh my!

    Unfortunately, if you have braces, there are simply some foods out there that you should try and avoid at all costs. It only takes one experience of picking out nasty little shards of popcorn from your brackets for a few days after eating some of those buttery rascals at the cinema to know how much of a mistake you’ve really made. Nuts, bubblegum, hard sweets or any overly sticky foods are going to give you trouble as well. It’s an unfortunate reality, you can eat these foods but just make sure you are cleaning well enough to remove the leftovers!

     

    Go to Your Dentist

    Other than everything just listed, the only other real trick to having a healthy set of teeth with braces is to make sure you’re going to see your Camira emergency dentist for every checkup scheduled. Let’s be honest here, your dentist put them on and he/she is definitely going to need to be around if you ever want them off, so make the best of it and go so that the job is done properly. 

    And that’s it! That should be everything you need to know about keeping your braces clean and ready to make a great smile! 

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