If you wear braces or a family member does, you may already be aware of the importance of keeping them clean, to ensure optimal oral health. Read our blog to learn the best way to maintain your investment and ensure your teeth stay clean and healthy.
Every orthodontic patient should know how to keep braces clean, to protect their investment. By learning about the proper way of cleaning your braces, you can protect your investment and your teeth, in the process.
Food & Debris in and Around Braces
Braces has its own unique challenges, when it comes to keeping them clean. With all the elements of braces, such as, springs, elastics, screws, springs, expanders, brackets, bands, and wires, it provides surfaces that are perfect for food debris, plaque, and acids, in which to bond to the tooth surface. This makes it quite difficult to clean your braces.
Brace Hygiene at Home
The right toothbrush, whether manual or electric, is vital for the care of braces. Choosing a toothbrush that is comprised of soft bristles and a compact head is ideal for cleaning braces, remembering to remove elastics before brushing, so as not to disturb wires and hooks. The toothbrush should be kept at a 45-degree angle at the gum line, and then brush back and forth and then upward, toward the biting surfaces of the teeth.
Brush the top and bottom surfaces of the brackets, removing plaque-producing bacteria and food debris, in the process. Brush the front of the brackets and wires. You may consider holding back your lip with one hand, while you brush the bracket areas with the other one.
Contact our office to get an appointment with your orthodontist, and allow Dr. Gluck or Dr. Levin to examine your braces. Call 770-901-2433 for braces in Alpharetta, [state