Brushing and Flossing
It’s more important than ever to brush and floss regularly when you have braces, so the teeth and gums are healthy during orthodontic treatment. Patients who do not keep their teeth clean may require more frequent visits to the dentist for a professional cleaning and are susceptible to getting permanent chalky white spots (decalcification) on their teeth. Adults who have a history of gum disease should also see a periodontist during orthodontic treatment. Watch the two videos below on the proper care of braces during orthodontic treatment.
Eating with Braces
What can you eat? Let’s talk about what you shouldn’t eat! For the first day or so, stick to soft foods. Avoid tough meats, hard breads, and raw vegetables. Before long, you’ll be able to bite a cucumber again. But you’ll need to protect your orthodontic appliances when you eat for as long as you’re wearing braces.
Foods to Avoid
- Chewy foods: bagels, hard rolls, licorice
- Crunchy foods: popcorn, ice
- Sticky foods: caramels, gum
- Hard foods: nuts, candy
- Foods you have to bite into: corn on the cob, apples, carrots
Chewing on hard things (for example, pens, pencils or fingernails) can damage the braces. Damaged braces will cause treatment to take longer.
General Soreness
When you start treatment with braces or Invisalign, you may feel general soreness in your mouth and teeth may be tender to biting pressure for 3 – 5 days. Take Tylenol or whatever you normally take for headache or discomfort. With braces the lips, cheeks and tongue may also become irritated for one to two weeks as they toughen and become accustomed to the braces. This typically is not an issue with Invisalign. We will supply wax to put on the braces in irritated areas to lessen discomfort.
Loosening of Teeth
A little bit of looseness is to be expected throughout treatment. Don’t worry! It’s normal. Teeth must loosen first so they can move. The teeth will firm up in their new — corrected — positions after treatment is completed. If teeth are very loose please call our office so we can evaluate the situation.
Loose Wire or Band
Don’t be alarmed if a wire or band comes loose. This happens occasionally. If a wire sticks out and is irritating, use a blunt instrument (eraser end of a pencil) and carefully, gently push the irritating wire back under the archwire. Simply get it out of the way. If irritation to the lips or mouth continues, place wax or wet cotton on the wire to reduce the annoyance. Call our office as soon as possible for an appointment to check and repair the problem.
Comfort Wax
When the braces are placed and time to time sometimes after that, a wire end or a brace could cause irritation of the cheeks, lips or tongue. This is very common for the first week or two when you first get your braces on and these getting used to the braces irritations go away on their own and typically do not return. However from time to time a wire end or a bracers might cause irritation. When either of these situations occurs please put the comfort wax that we have provided to you in your braces kit on whatever is bothering you. Instructions for how to properly apply the wax on are in a video on this page of our website: https://berkeleybraces.com/emergency-care/ for you to review.
Rubber Band Wear
To successfully complete orthodontic treatment, the patient must work together with the orthodontist. The teeth and jaws can only move toward their corrected positions if the patient consistently wears the rubber bands or other appliances as prescribed. Lack of cooperation following instructions and damaged appliances lengthen the treatment time… so please … follow instructions.
Athletics
If you play sports, it’s important you let us know. We will provide you with a protective mouthguard for playing ball and/or contact sports.