Oral health plays a big role in your orthodontic treatment, it also is a big contributor to your overall general health, which is why it is so important to take good care of your mouth!
It is important to remember that even when in orthodontic treatment, you need to keep up with your general dental check-ups. We will see you every 6-10 weeks depending on your treatment plan, but at these appointments our orthodontist is looking for orthodontic changes and is paying attention to the alignment of the teeth and structure of the jaws. An oral examination must be completed by a dentist where they can review if there are any cavities or if a proper clean is required.
Keeping good oral health can be difficult when you have fixed appliances such as braces and expanders, but there are a few useful tools to help with keeping your oral health on track. See below some helpful tips on how to make sure you are keeping up your oral health and therefore benefiting your overall general health.
Cleaning with Braces and fixed appliances.
- Use a soft bristle toothbrush, manual or electric is fine.
- Brushing should be done twice daily at least. Morning after breakfast and then again before bed, for 2 minutes. Under, on-top of and over the brackets, in a circular motion.
- Flossing daily is ideal, but with braces this can be tricky and time consuming. When flossing with braces a special type of floss is required due to the wires being in place. We recommend using ‘Superfloss’ which is a floss with a stiff end that can be threaded underneath the wire. During this process, you need to thread the floss under the wire at each tooth to floss, following the shape of the tooth. Therefore the process can be time consuming. If this can be maintained at least 3 times weekly, your gum health will benefit greatly.
- Piksters/Interdental brushes are also useful tools to help remove any food that may get stuck around your fixed appliances, brackets or wires. These are like little toothpicks with bristles and poke underneath the wire to help poke out any food.
- Mouthwash is not necessary and won’t bring any extra benefit if you are not brushing and flossing.
Cleaning with Invisalign and removable appliances.
- One of the best benefits of Invisalign treatment is that the Aligners are removable. This means that cleaning your teeth and keeping up good oral health is just as easy as before.
- Brushing should be done twice daily at least. Morning after breakfast and then again before bed, for 2 minutes.
- Flossing daily using waxed dental floss.
- Making sure that your hands are clean each time you handle your Aligners. As you will be handling the Aligners a number of times throughout the day we would recommend using a hand sanitizer every time you go to handle the Aligners. This will help keep bacteria at bay when dealing with your mouth.
- We also recommend using OrthoBrite, which is a dissolvable tablet that you sock Aligners and retainers in to help kill any unwanted bacteria and remove plaque build-up for removable appliances.
If you ever have any questions or concerns when it comes to your oral health or orthodontic treatment, make sure you reach out to our friendly staff or ask us at your next schedule appointment. Our team are always here to help!