In this helpful video guide, Kimberly, an expert Diamond Braces dental assistant, will teach you how to master home-care for your braces, so you can keep them clean, healthy, and working effectively throughout your treatment.
This information is useful no matter what stage of your treatment you’re in: keeping your braces clean and well-cared-for will keep your progress on track, your teeth and mouth healthy, and ensure a beautiful straight smile to last a lifetime!
How Can You Care For Your Braces At Home?
With your braces on, you’re on your way to a healthy, beautiful, lifelong smile.
We’re serious about lifelong, healthy smiles, whether braces or Invisalign, our Diamond Braces orthodontists are your best tool for achieving straight teeth and a beautiful smile. But your home care is just as important!
What Happens If You Don't Take Care of Braces?
Clean teeth and a healthy mouth are key to effective orthodontic treatment. Failure to properly care for your braces can have very unpleasant side effects: plaque and bacteria can cause cavities, gum disease, or other dental issues, and trapped food or bacteria around your brackets can demineralize your teeth, causing discoloration or staining on your teeth.
To keep your braces debris-free, your teeth clean and healthy, and your mouth fresh, proper at-home braces care is very important! This video and guide will help you keep your braces clean throughout your treatment.
What Do You Need For Braces Care at Home?
After bonding, when braces are put on the teeth, all new braces patients receive a useful kit to care for their new appliance at home.
This kit includes:
- Toothbrush
- 2-minute timer
- Travel toothbrush
- Floss
- Floss threader
- Interproximal brush
It is important to use all the above tools to keep your teeth healthy and your orthodontic treatment on track.
Brush Teeth After Every Meal, For 2 Minutes Each Time
Keep your braces clean and clear of food by brushing after every meal; or if you can’t do that, then at least three times a day, for 2 minutes each time. We include a 2-minute timer to help you keep track, but you can also set a timer on your phone or count in your head.
Our favorite timer is music! Choose a favorite track that’s at least 2 minutes and have fun while you brush.
Use a soft bristle brush, and brush at several angles to make sure you cover the whole surface of your tooth. Use any kind of toothpaste, and brush flat against the braces, and down over the brackets, so you’re pushing any food or debris out from under the wire.
We also include a travel toothbrush , perfect for bringing to work or school. While you’re out and about, you can use your travel toothbrush without toothpaste; water is enough to clean your teeth after meals, and you can do a thorough brush before bed at night.
Flossing Every Day Is Crucial for Braces Care - and for Lifelong, Healthy, Happy Smiles
Did you know? Brushing only removes about 50% of plaque and bacteria from your teeth! That’s why flossing is so important.
While flossing is important for proper oral hygiene at all times, it is particularly critical while wearing braces. That’s because the brackets and wires create lots of extra places in your mouth for food to get trapped and damage your teeth. Floss once a day, right before bed.
You can use normal floss with braces, but since it can be hard to get between your brackets with the wire in the way, we also provide you with a floss threader, made of a thicker plastic material that helps you weave the floss between your brackets. Simply push the tip of the floss through the threader and floss normally! You can reuse the floss threaders by washing them gently with soap and water.
Floss in every space between your teeth, push up in a C-shape around both teeth, and move on to the next space between teeth.
A Water Jet or Waterpik Provides Extra Teeth Cleaning Care
Water flossers like Water Jets and Waterpiks are very effective tools for removing harmful bacteria from between your teeth. They should not be used as substitutes for flossing, rather, use one in addition to flossing for extra-good cleaning!
Water flossers send a high-pressure stream of water onto your teeth; by aiming the stream between the teeth, it ejects food or other trapped debris from between your teeth.
An Interproximal Brush Helps You Clean Teeth in the Trickiest Parts of Your Mouth
Sometimes with braces, you’ll find something is stuck in the back of your braces and is difficult to remove. That’s where the interproximal brush comes in!
It sounds fancy, but it’s pretty simple: it’s just a tool designed to easily fit in the back corner of your mouth and remove any food or other debris. If you have something stuck in your braces, this brush will help you get it out. Just move it gently up and down against your wire until the food comes loose!
Try to address any stuck food as quickly as possible, to prevent plaque and bacteria from building up.
Brushing & Flossing Today Means A Beautiful, Healthy Smile Tomorrow - and Forever!
You’re on your way to smile joy with AAA braces care from Diamond Braces! Our orthodontists are here to assist you every step of the way as you straighten your teeth.
But you play the most important role of all, by keeping your teeth clean and your mouth fresh and healthy, to ensure the effectiveness of your orthodontic care.
With regular brushing and flossing, and quick removal of any trapped food, you’ll be smiling for a lifetime!
