How To Care For Your Dental Braces During Orthodontic Treatments

Getting orthodontic treatments to improve your smile using conventional dental braces or Invisalign clear aligners is a big responsibility and being committed is vital to get the desired results. Orthodontic braces consist of many parts, and hence, they should be taken care of well to ensure that they stay intact and do their job properly. 

Here are a few tips from Sandia Peak Dental on how to get started and to ensure that your orthodontic treatment yield desired results:

Caring for Conventional Metal Braces

If you are wearing conventional metal braces, take care of the following things: 

• Choose food items that are soft and easily chewable.
• Drink water after eating sweets to eliminate sugar from your teeth or between the braces. 
• Do not chew any hard objects like ice, pencils, or fingernails with dental braces on your teeth. 
• Caring for Invisalign

If you are wearing Invisalign clear aligners, follow these tips:

• Wear your aligners for the recommended duration of a minimum of 22 hours. 
• Remove your braces while having food, drinking any beverages other than room temperature water, brushing and flossing your teeth, or cleaning the aligners.
• Clean the Invisalign trays using a soft toothbrush and toothpaste every day.

Brushing and Flossing

If you are wearing orthodontic braces, food particles and oral bacteria can get stuck between the braces and cause tooth decay. Hence, it is important to brush your teeth gently with soft strokes using a small-sized toothbrush after every meal to eliminate the debris and plaque from the teeth. Besides, it is important to floss and clean all sides of each tooth twice a day. 

If you are wearing Invisalign, remove it while brushing and flossing. 

Think Before you Eat

Having softer foods for the first few days after placing the dental braces can help optimize comfort. Besides, throughout the course of treatment, avoid hard food items that might harm or break the brackets of attachments.  

It is important to remove the Invisalign aligners while having food or beverages. 

Visit the Orthodontist Regularly

When you get dental braces, it is important that you visit your orthodontist regularly for checkups and adjust the braces. When your orthodontist adjusts the braces, you might feel some pain or tightness that usually goes away in a few days. However, if this does not go away, consult your orthodontist to get your dental braces checked. Furthermore, if any part of your braces gets damaged or broken, visit your orthodontist as soon as possible.

If you have any doubts, contact Sandia Peak Dental at (505) 298-6732 to schedule an appointment.