To keep your teeth and gums healthy the most important thing is daily removal of dental plaque.
Plaque is a sticky, colorless layer of bacteria that constantly forms on your teeth, locks and wire arches. Plaque deposits on teeth and locks due to poor hygiene causes swelling and redness of the gums, bleeding while brushing your teeth, the carious cavity on the tooth, or white spots on teeth.
Here are some basic rules that are important for preserving your teeth and gums healthy.
Brush your teeth
Brush your teeth, gums and orthodontic locks three times a day (after each meal). Especially pay attention to the surface of teeth between gums and locks.
Brush your teeth with a regular brush with soft fibers, which must not be older than 6 months and toothpaste, which must contain fluoride (a minimum of 1000ppm). Locks, teeth and arches should be washed at an angle of 45 degrees from the fixed braces, first below and then above. There are also special orthodontic toothbrushes with bundles of fibers in the form of the letter V, used to brush locks and arches on both sides at the same time (eg. GUM Orthodontic Brush). There are brushes for "solo" brushing for each tooth (eg. CURADEN CS 1009), rotating brushes that use batteries have also proved to be efficient (eg. Philips Sonicare or Oral-B Ortho).
Floss your teeth
Be sure to use floss at least once a day, before bed, after dinner. It removes the dental plaque located between the teeth and under the edge of the gums - these are areas that are beyond the reach of the fibers of a toothbrush. In fact, if you do not floss, 40% of the teeth remains untreated. If, while flossing, you have intensified bleeding of the gums, it is just a sign that you need to pay more attention to proper flossing. The bleeding will stop after you remove the bacterial plaque enabling the gums to heal.
It will be easier for you to floss your teeth if you use a special floss that is made up of three parts (eg. Oral-B Super Floss, Curaprox Thornton Superfloss). One end of the floss is stiff, so that it can easily pass through the spaces between the teeth - over the wire arch of the upper jaw and below the wire arch of the lower jaw. This rigid part is linked to a thicker, spongy part which is best in removing bacterial plaque on the teeth, locks and wire arches. It removes plaque and food residues by cleaning between these surfaces. The back part of the Superfloss is the floss that cleans the remaining space between the teeth and below the edge of gums. It should be put around each tooth in the form of the letter S and gently guide it along the teeth and under the edge of the gums.
As an alternative to Superfloss, you can obtain special rigid loops (Threaders, for example. GUM EEZ-thru Floss Threaders) which you use with regular floss.
Inter-dental brush is also recommended (eg. Gum Proxabrush Traveler). It may well clean the surfaces below the wire arches.
If you do not know how to use floss and inter-dental brush properly, you can get a teeth irrigation tool which works under pressure (waterpick). For details, consult your dentist!
Wash your mouth with fluoride solutions
As long as you are wearing fixed braces we encourage you to, after brushing your teeth with paste with fluoride, rinse your teeth with a solution of low concentrated fluoride (eg Galenika FLUOROGAL solution of 223ppM F). FLUOROGAL solution should be poured into a bottle cork to the upper convolution (10ml) and rinsed for 1 minute. After rinsing, you must spit out the solution and do not take any food or liquid half hour after that.
Avoid hard, sticky and sweet food
The list of goods that can cause problems for patients with braces are generally divided into three types:
Hard food - this food can distort the wire arch and break or separate locks from the teeth. Avoid hard bread, bones, ice, hard candies. First separate roasted corn from its clip. Fresh carrots should be cut longitudinally and bitten with your back teeth. Cut apples into slices and bite it with your back teeth. Avoid hard popcorn, and remove the remaining particles with dental floss. (In addition to avoiding hard food you should avoid biting pencils and you should keep your fingers away from the wire arches).
Sticky food - these goods can also distort the wire arch. Avoid caramels, chewing gums and other sticky sweets.
Sweet food - when you eat food rich in sugar, you are not the only one who uses this sugar. Bacteria and plaque on the teeth use it too for their own nutrition. The end product of bacterial decomposition of sugar is an acid that decalcifies tooth and makes dental caries that first occur in the form of white spots of decalcification, and later in that place real cavities are created. Therefore, in addition to regular brushing and flossing your teeth it is important that you eat sweets only as an addition to the main course! There is nothing more dangerous for teeth than eating a variety of sweet snacks and carbonated drinks between meals! Next to sugar, carbonated beverages also contain Orthophosphoric acid, which itself damages the teeth! Because of that acid carbonated beverages without sugar are also dangerous. If you have to eat something between meals it should be a fruit.
While you are wearing braces
Tooth soreness
For two or three days after setting your braces or after changing the rubber rings you may experience general soreness of teeth. If necessary, you can take a medicine against pain, such as Ibuprofen.
If you feel that your locks, after placing the braces, are pinching your cheek, first couple of days you can try to put warm piece of wax on them, so that you cover the sharp edges. Remove the wax before brushing your teeth.
The fallout of locks, loosened rubbers and bars
If you notice that some locks are dislocated from the teeth, that a knot has untied, that a rubber ring has become loose or that a wire arch is sticking out from its slot in the locks, contact your dentist to make an appointment within a week. If you experience stronger pain because of these reasons, call and make an urgent appointment. You can put warm piece of wax on sharp edges of the wire arch or locks while waiting for an appointment.
Sport
During sport activities you should wear so-called mouth and teeth guards. A temporary mouth and teeth guard can be purchased at your local sport store. Individual custom made mouth guards can be made after the completion of your orthodontic treatment. They are applied on clean and washed braces.
Author: Dr Aleksandar Despotovic
BELLE DENT Dental Practice
Gandijeva 114a-2 New Belgrade
