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Oral Hygiene
Now that you have your braces in place, it is more important to maintain a good oral hygiene regimen throughout the length of your treatment as it was before. Braces, wires, bands and retainers can all trap food particles and make it difficult to brush or floss away plaque. Careful brushing and flossing, preferably after every meal and snack, is the best way to prevent plaque build-up, tooth decay and gum disease.
Brushing
- Start with the outside of the teeth, with the brush at a 45 degree angle. Move your tooth brush in a circular motion.
- Don’t forget to brush the tops of your teeth between the gums and braces! Keep moving in a small circular motion.
- Angle your tooth brush down away from your gums (on top) and push all the plaque out from under your wire. Repeat this on the bottom teeth, angling your toothbrush up away from your gums. You don’t want to push plaque into your gums causing infection.
- Brush the chewing surface of both your upper and lower teeth.
- Finish by brushing the inside of the teeth.
- After rinsing out, take your little brush and clean out from underneath your wires and under your hooks.
Flossing
Flossing is also very important when you have braces. It is a good idea to floss at least once a day. Although it takes a little more time, once you get the hang of it, it is super easy!
- In order to floss properly, the floss needs to go under your arch wire. To achive this, you will need one of the floss threaders provided to you.
- Put the long end of the floss threader underneath the wire in between two teeth.
- Thread your floss through the loop of the floss threader about half way. Hold on to one end of your floss and one end of your floss threader.
- Pull the floss threader until the floss is all the way under the wire.
- Now that you have your floss under the wire, floss your teeth up and down on one side of your tooth and the other, as far as you can go naturally, without hurting yourself.
- Pull your floss out and begin again on the next tooth.
- Start with the outside of the teeth, with the brush at a 45 degree angle. Move your tooth brush in a circular motion.
- Don’t forget to brush the tops of your teeth between the gums and braces! Keep moving in a small circular motion.
- Angle your tooth brush down away from your gums (on top) and push all the plaque out from under your wire. Repeat this on the bottom teeth, angling your toothbrush up away from your gums. You don’t want to push plaque into your gums causing infection.
- Brush the chewing surface of both your upper and lower teeth.
- Finish by brushing the inside of the teeth.
- After rinsing out, take your little brush and clean out from underneath your wires and under your hooks.
