How to brush your teeth with braces

Modern achievements in orthodontics can correct even the most crooked and ugly teeth. One of the most popular tools in this business is braces. Braces are a special design that fixes the teeth in the right position and gradually aligns them. With the help of braces, you can achieve a serious correction. But braces have several drawbacks - prolonged wearing of the structure, as well as the need for thorough dental care.

The patient's path with braces is long and thorny, requiring sufficient returns. However, everything pays off with a beautiful smile with even teeth. The special design on the teeth not only smoothes the teeth, but also is a serious obstacle to high-quality brushing. The fact is that numerous bends, arcs and ligatures provide an excellent opportunity for the deposition of food residues. This can lead to tooth decay and damage to tooth enamel. If the teeth in the braces are not properly looked after, after removing them, light or dark spots, and sometimes even caries, can be found on the surface of the tooth. Did you really want to achieve this? That is why brushing your teeth with braces is a very important stage of transformation.

How to brush your teeth with braces

To clean all hard-to-reach areas, you need to know how to properly and in what order to brush your teeth with braces.

1. First you need to brush your teeth. You can take a regular brush, but for patients with braces there are special brushes with a specific arrangement of bristles. Along the brush, the bristles in the middle are carved in the form of a long tubule. If you look at the brush from the side of the handle, you can see the letter V. Such brushes can be bought at any pharmacy or made independently. To do this, just cut the desired shape with nail scissors.
2. The paste should also be special. Do not buy whitening pastes - they contain a lot of abrasive particles that irritate the surface of the tooth and scratch the tooth enamel. It is better to choose a post with a high content of fluoride - it covers the teeth and creates a protective film of tooth enamel. Also in the paste should be such components as calcium and phosphorus.
3. Squeeze a small amount of paste onto the brush and begin cleaning with the upper jaw and the outer surface of the teeth. The movements should be like commas - so you bristles push the rest of the food out from under the arcs. Brush each tooth thoroughly for at least 5 seconds, and only then move on to the next tooth. When the outer surface is cleaned, go to the inner surface of the teeth. After this, the same thorough brushing will be done on the teeth from the lower jaw. Clean the interdental spaces, the area around the gums and molars well - these areas suffer the most.
4. After brushing, rinse your mouth with clean water. The next step is flossing. Some types of threads are made in such a way that they change their thickness. That is, it is convenient to skip the thin part of the floss between the teeth, and then remove food residues with the thick part of the floss. Flossing should be just as thorough. First, the end of the thread is passed through the arch of the structure, and only then pass into the interdental space. This allows you to clean the areas of teeth from food that could not "remove" the brush. Thus, you need to thread each gap.
5. Even the most intense movements with a thread and a brush cannot adequately clean teeth from plaque in those areas of the tooth that are closed by arches. To do this, you need a brush. Its thin diameter and short bristles allow you to clean the most inaccessible areas.

After all the procedures described, it may seem to you that cleaning will take forever, but this is not so.Having adapted enough, you can spend on cleaning no more than 5 minutes in total. After all, is it worth it to preserve the beauty and health of teeth?

You need to brush your teeth with braces at least three times a day, after each meal. There is another device that can help you out in an emergency when there is no time for thorough cleaning. This is an irrigator. A special device supplies a stream of water with high pressure, this allows you to clean your teeth of plaque and food debris. Some devices can be portable - they do not take up much space in your purse and you can always carry them with you. However, remember that the irrigator does not replace thorough cleaning and can only be used as an additional tool.

After all procedures with a brush, irrigator and dental floss, rinse your mouth thoroughly again. To do this, use special mouthwashes. In many restaurants near the sink there is a small capacity in the form of a cooler - inside it there is a mint solution. It is intended for rinsing the mouth after eating. But be on the alert and always carry your own rinse aid just in case.

There are also removable braces that the patient wears intermittently. Depending on whether they need to be removed during lunch, these braces are also cleaned. If you dined directly with the structure, after eating you need to remove it, clean the oral cavity and the structure itself (with a separate brush), rinse thoroughly and put on again. If the structure was removed before meals, it can simply be washed under running water before re-installation. Remember, such constructions need to be cleaned regularly by placing in water with a special composition (effervescent tablets for cleansing can be found in the pharmacy).

How to care for your teeth with braces

Cleaning is not a complete list of what a patient with braces should take care of. Here are some tips to help you make your braces more comfortable.

1. On sale there are special hand mirrors with a convex surface. They have a magnifying ability. Such a pocket mirror will help you to see in detail the hard-to-reach areas of the braces and, if necessary, re-clean.
2. Even with the most thorough and frequent cleaning, you will not be able to avoid contamination of tiny inaccessible areas between the teeth and under the braces. Therefore, once every six months you need to carry out professional cleaning at the dentist. If necessary, it will save you from tartar, which is destroyed using a special ultrasonic device.
3. During cleaning, you need to clean not only the teeth, but also the design of the braces.
4. For the first time after installing braces, you can’t eat cold foods - low temperature can affect the arcs of the structure and they can change their position.
5. Also prohibited is everything solid - pieces of meat, seeds, nuts and crackers. They can move the bracket out of place, leading to additional worries and costs.
6. If you wear braces, chewing gum is also prohibited.
7. For some time you should abandon black tea, coffee and coloring soda. The fact is that even a slight ingress of pigment under the bracket can lead to the formation of spots on the surface of the tooth.
8. If for some reason a part of the bracket has come unstuck or the arc has changed its position, you need to see a doctor as soon as possible.
9. A toothbrush needs to be changed every month, and a brush more often.
10. Carry all the necessary accessories for brushing your teeth all the time - you don’t know where you have to have lunch today?
11. The first time after installation you need to eat only liquid and soft food. In no case should you eat solid vegetables and fruits, and even more so, bite them with your front teeth. Your food - mashed potatoes, soups, cereals, yogurts, baby food. Gums can ache - that's fine.To strengthen the gums, you need vitamin C, which is a lot in rose hips and citrus fruits. If wounds or ulcers appear on the gums, be sure to contact your orthodontist, perhaps the design is not installed correctly.

These simple tips will help you not only enhance the effect of wearing braces, but also significantly reduce the time to align your teeth.

Wearing braces is not an easy period. In addition to the need for thorough cleaning, the patient experiences discomfort during a conversation, while eating, and simply at rest (especially at first). But patience and perseverance will help you overcome difficulties on the way to a beautiful smile. Remember the goal, and then any difficulty will be surmountable!

Video: dental hygiene with braces