Dental braces have never been so popular and with plenty of finance options available super affordable too. Gone are the days when I would only see teenagers and brides to be for brace care now everyone’s at it, young and old with no special occasion required.

I’ve just started my journey with Invisalign clear aligners, so I thought I would put a little survival guide together for you, whether you’re thinking about a brace or you’re wearing one at the minute and need a little help or if we’ve chatted about braces at your appointment and you need a bit of a reminder.

Firstly you will need an absolutely cracking oral hygiene routine. Braces are MAGNETS for plaque and if you’re a regular reader (hi :)) you’ll have seen me discuss this in a few previous blogs. It’s nothing we can’t handle though as long as we have the tools for the job. Just like on the dental implants blog I’ve put together a ‘Braces Tool Kit’ so you can look after your braces to the best of your ability. As usual, I’m not getting paid to talk about any of these products, but some have been gifted which I will mark with a *. You will need:

A Toothbrush
Brushing around brackets can be tricky and awkward so I generally recommend an electric brush with a small head, its hard to get a bad one but something like the Oral B Genius 9000* is great. My personal favourite to use probably as well as your electric toothbrush is the CS Ortho Ultra Swift Brush* by Curaprox which very cleverly has a groove cut out of the middle to fit snugly round the brackets which cleaning the tooth surface at the top and most importantly the gum line meeting the tooth at the bottom which usually gets missed. You need to brush your teeth usually after each meal for 2 minutes to help keep your whole mouth as plaque free as possible, this is absolutely essential. Plenty of Orthodontists will remove your brace if your oral hygiene isn’t up to par so you really need to keep on top of it.
Toothpaste
Vitis Orthodontic Toothpaste is in my opinion the best toothpaste for braces it’s SLS free which helps keep the tooth colour on the wire of cosmetic braces while helping the prevent ulcers and healing any ulceration or sores that occur in the first few days due to your braces in double time. A bit pricier than your regular toothpaste, but worth it especially for cosmetic braces.
Interdental Brushes
Super important for keeping the areas in between your teeth plaque free, you can also use interdental brushes to clean between the wire and your tooth surface helping to keep the area plaque free and helping to prevent embarrassing food traps throughout the day so it’s always good to keep some of these guys in your handbag or your pocket. Curaprox Interdental Starter Kits* are great for this job as they come with a few different interchangable sizes of brush heads along with both long and short handles but any interdental brush will do, the most important thing is that you do this regularly so pick some that are in your budget.

4. A Single Tufted Brush

If any of you guys have visited me before you’ll probably have heard me talking about one of these, I recommend them for EVERYTHING and with good reason I really love them, you can read my separate blog post on everything these are useful for here. An Interspace 1009 * by Curaprox is probably my favourite for braces. They’re really great for cleaning around your brackets and along the gum line where your tooth meets the gum. Plaque sitting here can cause the gums to become puffy and swollen while wearing a brace and I see this a lot especially around the lower teeth, keeping this area clean with a single tufted brush really helps reduce the risk of this happening.

5. X Floss

Fabulous, but fiddly, if you’re ready, willing and able X Floss is great for braces and after your fixed brace comes off or your aligners are finished, they’re great for fixed retainers too. My go to is X Floss lite the blue one but Oral B and Curaprox both have threadable floss that you can use for braces and retainers. I think its best for your Dental Hygienist or Dentist to demo this for you at your appointment so you can see exactly what to do but the basics are

Thread the plastic end through the space between your teeth and the wire.
Clean the area closer to the gum line with the thicker spongy area of the floss back and forward gently like a super super slowed down ‘shoe shine’ motion.
Thread the floss back out through the gap.
Hopefully this makes sense, as I was saying an in surgery demo in the mirror is probably best but I’ll leave this video below which might help me explain a bit better

6. A Waterflosser

I have a whole blog dedicated to the water flosser which I will link here. My favourite is the Waterpik Cordless Advanced Waterflosser, its a bit of an investment, the one I’ve linked here is on amazon at the minute at £84 but especially if you’ve already paid a large amount of money for cosmetic braces its important to invest both time and money in your oral hygiene routine at home. Water flossers are especially good for braces as they do a few different jobs in one cleaning around brackets, in between teeth and at the gum line. This is a great time saver and what I particularly like is that as teeth move and get closer together or further apart you don’t need to chop and change between floss, interdental brushes or a combination of the two to clean the area effectively. As always my advice is practice, practice, practice, and go for a cordless version unless you have a two pronged power outlet in your bathroom. Below is a great video for caring for your brace generally but if you want a quick reminder on how to use the water flosser around your brace skip to 2:42.

7. Mouthwash

I don’t usually recommend mouthwash, I always say to my patients its helpful, but not essential. I do think though its good when you are wearing braces especially fixed brackets as it provides some extra fluoride around your teeth which helps gives some extra protection against cavities and can help dislodge some food traps after eating. I’m going to stick with Vitis Orthodontic for my mouthwash recommendation because like the toothpaste it’s SLS free which is good for cosmetic braces and alcohol free giving it a mild taste.

8. Disclosing Tablets

Every great artist likes to admire their handy work and disclosing tablets help you do just that. A great way to either see where the plaque is before you brush or to evaluate your brushing after you’ve finished or perhaps a wee bit of both. Sometimes braces can hide a lot as we can see from the picture to the right especially around the brackets and at the gum line. Some Orthodontists will provide these for you or you can pick them up pretty easily from the chemist or online, I don’t really have a favourite and I wouldn’t spend a fortune on them. Use them as much as you fancy, you’ll probably find you need to use them less and less the longer you’re wearing your brace but keep on checking in with your cleaning technique - we don’t want to get complacent now do we?

9. Wax

Brackets are a completely alien concept to the soft tissues inside your mouth so especially at the beginning brackets can be uncomfortable and can rub against your lips, cheeks and tongue. Dental wax can help with this, it should be provided when your braces are fitted but if not or if you need more you can pick this up in the chemist or online. Soften a piece of wax between your fingers, dry the bracket off before you apply the wax and apply a fairly large amount all over the area that’s rubbing or even across a few brackets because you never know who the culprit could be. Clear wax is best, when I was 12 my Orthodontist supplied me with BRIGHT RED dental wax. Not cute.

Ok, so we have everything we need, its going to be a bit expensive, you don’t need to get it all at once and you can get started with a Curaprox Orthodontic Toothbrush, some SLS free toothpaste, some interdental brushes and a single tufted brush and still probably have some change from £20 so in the grand scheme of things its not to bad. The other thing though that we need to invest is time. You need to MAKE TIME in your schedule a clear 10 minutes. Everyday. Now it probably wont take you 10 minutes but its better to have the time already than having to make the time. I don’t want to hear that you don’t have the time, if you’re a morning person get everything done then, if you’re a night owl and 11pm suits you best, do it then. There’s no point wearing these braces to end the journey with straight teeth and a whole host of dental problems. Going through the full routine once a day and then giving the teeth a couple of 2 minute brushes in between times is fine.

Just a couple of general house keeping rules then while we’ve got this brace on:

Keep up to date with your appointments and let your Orthodontist or Dentist know if you lose any bracets or if a wire comes off - keeps everything on track and helps prevent adding extra time to your treatment plan
Tea, coffee, read wine, spicy food, beetroot, tomato based sauces and curries can stain the elastics surrounding your braces, first world problems I know, but if you don’t fancy luminous braces between appointments I would avoid
Be careful with what you eat, the general rule of thumb is avoid anything crunchy, chewy or sticky - I love a loop hole though you can have a few chocolate buttons if you don’t chew them as a treat, or have the pizza just cut the crusts off. Absolutely no carrot sticks, apples, popcorn, chewing gum, toffees or nuts though.
Avoid fizzy drinks - these are just a no no at the best of times but especially when wearing a brace, plain water only please and thankyou :)

So hopefully this blog will help you on your braces journey, braces really are amazing you just need to look after them. If you have any questions you can message me through the Contact Us section on the website or via Instagram or if you would like a more tailor made oral hygiene routine for you and your brace you can book an appointment with me at Moira Cosmetic Dental or Bupa Dental Care Glengormly good luck and thanks so much for reading.