How Do You Maintain Oral Hygiene With Braces – 2024 Guide

Regardless if you hate or love wearing braces, they’re there give you a new smile. But don’t let that fool you from the fact that you still have to maintain proper oral hygiene.

Granted, they make the work much harder but you’ll still have to do it. Brushing and flossing are key when it comes to cleaning the wires and brackets.

But since a lot of people have an issue doing that, we’re here to explain the process. In this article, we will talk about how to maintain oral hygiene with braces. With all that said, let’s start.

1.  Talk To Your Dentist About Cleaning Tools

While this isn’t a tip on how to clean the brackets or wires, it is something that everyone can do. Your dentist will surely advise you on how to maintain proper oral hygiene, but they’ll also advise on the potential cleaning tools you can use.

This is the easiest thing you can do as your dentist is the most qualified person to give this advice. And make no mistake; there are many braces-cleaning tools out there that do a good job in cleaning between the brackets and wires.

2.  Do It More Than Once

Being lazy won’t get you anywhere in life. And the case is the same when it comes to looking after our teeth. Dentists advise doing a thorough cleaning several times a day.

While most people floss once and brush two times a day, that should change when wearing braces. While wearing braces, food particles get stuck much easier between the brackets. So you’ll need to brush and floss after every meal.

It’s important that you remove any food particles from the brackets. There are all kinds of tools that do just that. That’s why you should talk to your dentist regarding tools that do the best job.

3.  Protect Your Teeth Against Decay

When wearing braces, getting tooth decay is a common occurrence. When this happens, it can be hard to work on your teeth because of the braces. Removing them would be counterproductive, so that means protecting your teeth from decay is an important priority.

But how do you do that? Well, dentists advise on using toothpaste and mouthwash with fluoride in them. Again, talk to your dentist regarding what products to get.

4.  Chose the Best Toothpaste

It’s a well-known thing that 9 out of 10 dentists recommend this and that toothpaste brand. But what about products that get a 10 out of 10 recommendation?

We talked about fluoride and how it is the preferred choice for people with braces. And that’s certainly true, but how do you know what to get? When speaking to your dentist about it, they will recommend any fluoride toothpaste that has more than 1000 ppm of fluoride.

Since fluoride strengthens the enamel surface and prevents plaque from growing within your tooth, the more fluoride in the toothpaste the better.

5.  Chose the Best Toothbrush

On the other side of the table, we have the toothbrush. The toothbrush is just as important as the toothpaste. And much like the toothpaste, your dentist can also recommend the best one for wearing braces.

But a general rule of thumb is to get a toothbrush that comes with soft round bristles. These do the job much better and are much more effective at removing food particles and debris from the brackets.

For the more tech-savvy people, you can get an electric toothbrush. The electric type is recommended for kids as that will encourage them to brush their teeth after every meal.

Electric or not, make sure to visit thetoothbrushexpert.com to know more about the best toothbrushes for braces.

6.  Use Mouthwash

Using mouthwash should be an important part of your daily oral hygiene. And for good reasons as mouthwash is excellent for rinsing. We did mention previously that there is a mouthwash with fluoride. This should be the product to get as fluoride prevents cavities. Rinsing with mouthwash should be done at least once a day.

7.  Flossing

When it comes to flossing and wearing braces, very few people will try it as many think of it as impossible. But you can in fact do it. The only way to floss and not get the thread thorn is by using special products that market themselves for people that wear braces.

These products do the job better as they are much more durable than ordinary flossing products. Some of these products are made using wax so the floss doesn’t snap while flossing.

But that’s not the only type of product to use to maintain oral hygiene while wearing braces. You can also use all kinds of brushes that are specially designed to clean the spaces between the braces. These brushes can fit into smaller areas, effectively cleaning food particles from harder-to-reach spaces, and clean bigger areas.

8.  Eat the Right Food

Maintaining oral hygiene doesn’t only mean brushing, flossing, and using mouthwash. If you want proper oral hygiene, you will avoid certain types of foods as they can be very harmful to your teeth and braces.

When it comes to foods to avoid, the first ones include sticky, chewy, or hard foods that get stuck between the braces. These include the likes of popcorn, nuts, candy, caramel, etc. Not only are these foods harmful to your teeth, but they will cause havoc between the brackets of your braces.

When it comes to preventing damage to the enamel of your teeth, make sure to avoid eating too many high-acid foods. These include tomatoes, apples, pineapples, salsa, certain types of soft drinks, etc. These foods contain acid and can erode the enamel of your teeth.

Instead of eating pineapples, eat bananas, mangoes, carrots, etc, as they are considered low-acid foods and an excellent alternative.

Conclusion

There are many ways to take good care of your teeth and braces. Proper oral hygiene will make sure that your teeth stay in perfect shape even with the braces on. And all that’s left is for you to remove them and get the smile you’ve always wanted.