The Thacker Orthodontics team loves handing out helpful advice to our patients in Cincinnati and Hillsboro. In fact, second only to moving your teeth to give you a smile you love, sharing advice is what we do most! One of our most common pieces of advice is deceptively simple: take care of your smile as best as you can! By keeping your mouth healthy and happy, you’re giving yourself the best shot at a lifetime of aligned and comfortable smiles. Caring for your smile between orthodontic visits isn’t hard, but the tips below might not be common knowledge to everyone. Let’s explore our top tips on caring for your smile between orthodontic visits!
Maintain your dental hygiene
Keeping up with your oral health is always important, but did you know it’s an essential part of your treatment plan too? Tooth decay, gum disease, and other dental problems can lead to complications in your orthodontic treatment, and may even affect your final results.
Whether you’re currently on your treatment journey or just wrapping up your last few weeks of braces or aligners, there are some basics of dental hygiene that you should always follow! These guidelines will help you maintain clean teeth and a healthy mouth, and can help keep your treatment on track:
- Brush at least three times a day, ideally after each meal and once before bed.
- Use fluoridated toothpaste and a toothbrush with soft bristles.
- Brush gently at a 45-degree angle toward the gum line, moving the toothbrush in a circular pattern across the teeth to effectively remove bacteria and any trapped food particles.
- Floss at least once per day to remove bacteria and any food that has accumulated throughout the day.
- Replace your toothbrush every 3-4 months, or sooner if you have a cold or any other illness.
- Use antimicrobial and fluoridated mouthwashes to help further improve your oral health.
If you wear Invisalign, you should be following the same basic guidelines for dental hygiene, but you’ll need to care for your aligners too. Always rinse them off before putting them back in your mouth, and remember to clean them well with soap and water at least twice a day.
If you notice any build-up, you can soak your aligners in an oral apparatus cleaning fluid to remove it. You can clean them with toothpaste too, but this increases the risk of scratching, dulling, or otherwise deforming them; soaking them is your best bet for safely and thoroughly cleaning them. You should never clean them with or soak them in hot water, and remember to keep them away from heat sources so they retain their shape.
If you have braces, you already know that it can take some skillful maneuvering to thoroughly clean around your brackets and wires. For the best results, we recommend:
- brushing around every part of your braces
- brushing every surface of every tooth
- brushing until your brackets are clean and shiny
- flossing every night before you go to bed
- using tools like floss threaders and Waterpiks to clean hard-to-reach areas
Limit your sugar intake
Cavities can harm your treatment and your teeth long term. To combat this, avoid sugary snacks and drinks as much as you can. Food that is high in sugar and starch encourages plaque growth, which can lead to tooth decay or gum disease.
Sugar is also a carbohydrate, and carbs fuel the acidic compounds that cause cavities to form. This is bad enough on teeth without braces, but add in brackets and wires and you’ve got multiple places where bad bacteria can hide and multiply! Swap out sugary drinks for water instead—it’s great for your body and can help flush food particles out of your braces and from between your teeth.
Make an on-the-go care kit
We recommend that you stay prepared for unexpected orthodontic emergencies by keeping a travel care kit with you wherever you go. Some of the items we recommend including are:
- a soft-bristled toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste for brushing wherever you are
- floss or ortho picks to use after eating if you have the time and space to do so
- orthodontic wax, which can be used to cover any areas causing you irritation
- extra rubber bands
- lip balm for dry lips resulting from braces
- a small cup for rinsing with water, which helps dislodge any trapped food particles
- an unsharpened pencil (you can use the eraser end to push stray brace wires back into place)
Throw these items and whatever else you think would be useful into a small, portable bag and you’ll have everything you need in a pinch! This can end up saving you quite a bit of time, trouble, and discomfort if you need to perform unexpected care, you end up having to wait longer than expected for your next appointment, or if you simply want to keep your teeth and appliance clean on the go.
Follow your orthodontist’s guidance!
Dr. Jim and Dr. MaryEvan carefully personalize every treatment plan to meet their patient’s smile needs and goals, so closely following their instructions is probably in your best interests! If you’ve been given elastics to wear with your braces or aligners, make sure to wear them exactly as directed. If you’ve recently completed treatment, continue to wear your retainer as instructed by your doctor.
Invisalign patients will normally be provided with several weeks’ worth of aligners at a time, but if you run out of aligners before your next scheduled appointment, we can arrange curbside pick-up for the next set. Dr. Jim and Dr. MaryEvan are also available for video or telephone appointments if you have any questions or concerns. Socially distanced options like these mean that all of our patients can continue their treatments safely, conveniently, and without delay.
If we’re unable to provide you with a new set of aligners right away, you can continue wearing the last set you were given. However, you should only wear them 10-12 hours each day instead of the usual 20-22 hours. This shortened wear duration will help extend the life of your aligners until an appointment is available. This way you can keep your treatment plan on track and ensure that you don’t lose any of your hard-earned progress!
Your smile is a team effort at Thacker Orthodontics
Even when you’re not in our offices, the team at Thacker Orthodontics is always rooting for you! Our expert, friendly team is always happy to talk to you on the phone, over email, and in-person to answer your questions or address any concerns you might have.
Caring for your smile is a lifelong process, and it’s never a bad time to make sure that you’re doing all you can to keep your treatment on track. For more ways to be proactive with the orthodontic process, get in touch to ask our knowledgeable team any questions you may have or schedule an appointment with Dr. Jim and Dr. MaryEvan.