Orthodontist Tips for Keeping Your Braces Clean and Comfortable

22 January, 2025
Girl with eyeglasses smiling.

Orthodontic braces are a common dental treatment that offers transformative lifetime benefits. If the braces treatment itself will provide you with great results, to make the most of this treatment it’s not only important to wear them for their required time but also to maintain regular checkups and a heightened oral health routine. 

While undergoing a braces treatment, feeling occasional discomfort, such as food getting caught in your braces is quite common. To prevent such discomfort and its consequences—bad breath, build-up of plaque and tartar, regular and thorough cleaning help. Keeping your braces clean not only ensures good oral hygiene and health but also maintains the effectiveness of wires and brackets, maximising the overall success of your dental treatment. 

Oral Health is a fundamental aspect of overall health and well-being. It enables essential physical functions such as breathing, eating, and drinking, while also supporting psychological welfare by facilitating social interaction, communication and self-expression. On the other hand, poor oral health can significantly impact appetite, sleep patterns, self-confidence and social engagement.

By following the below steps through regular cleaning and maintenance of your braces, you can create a successful and long-lasting result with aligned teeth and good oral health that will have a positive impact on your day-to-day life.

Our tips to keep your braces clean

Cleaning your braces is a lot easier than you may think. Follow our tips below to keep them clean: 

1. Floss

Even though it may be hard to do so, you still need to floss your teeth when you have braces. Regular dental floss may be hard to get under your brackets, so instead try a floss threader to get right under brackets and wires. Like all teeth flossing, flossing your braces should be done once a day.

For flossing use floss picks or water flossers to get in areas regular floss may not be able to reach. Floss picks are significantly smaller and thinner and have a handle that allows for easy use in tighter areas. A water flosser utilises a high-pressure tiny water spray to reach those same difficult areas and is easier for people who struggle to floss by hand.

2. Use the right toothbrush

With orthodontic braces, your teeth become more sensitive, and should not be brushed by hard-bristled brushes. Use soft-bristled toothbrushes, like an interdental brush. An interdental brush is great for braces, as its small size and soft bristles allow you to clean under your braces hardware and reach areas a regular toothbrush wouldn’t fit. Brushing with fluoride toothpaste to clean your teeth in the morning, at night and for 20 minutes (to allow acids to break down) after every meal to ensure all food, and buildup are removed from your braces. Follow all teeth brushing with mouthwash to remove any excess bacteria or food debris and also ensure oral hygiene–meaning no bad breath!

3. Brush the right way!

Braces mean teeth will need to be brushed a little differently than regular.

  • Start by holding your toothbrush so the bristles are at a 45-degree angle with the gumline, and brush in a circular motion, working your way around your mouth from one side to the other. Brushing where the tooth crown meets the gum surface. Spend about 10 seconds brushing each tooth.
  • Then brush the brackets on each tooth one by one. Do this by brushing in circular motions for 10 seconds on each bracket.
  • Clean under your archwires, you can do this by tilting your toothbrush to ensure you get under your wires and brackets or use an interdental brush to get underneath.
  • Brush the chewing surface of your teeth or the tops of your teeth.
  • Brush the inside surfaces of all teeth.
  • Rinse and gargle your mouth.

4. Be mindful of what you eat!

To keep your braces in good condition and ensure their efficiency throughout the whole treatment, you will need to be mindful of the food you eat. Indeed, while there is no forbidden food per se, it’s best to limit your consumption of the hard-to-bite one or the one that can get stuck in your braces.

Avoid what can get stuck:

Gummy candies, taffy, popcorn, chips, gum, caramel, nuts, and other foods that can get stuck on your braces and teeth or that may damage your braces.

Avoid what can cause damage:

Apples, carrots, hard nuts, granola bars, well-cooked meats or dried meats alongside any foods that are hard to bite and can cause brackets to break or loosen.

5. Maintain regular visits to your dentist.

Orthodontist explaining clear aligner care to a patientWhile careful brushing, gargling and flossing will help you take care of your braces and safeguard the health of your mouth, we also recommend you book regular checkups at your dentist, in addition to the follow-up appointment given to you by Dr O’Connor. These checkups will help remove plaque, and tartar buildup to ensure your teeth are still going strong and healthy while your alignment is coming along.

 

Maintaining your braces with Solas Orthodontics’s tips.

Solas Orthodontics is committed to providing the best possible experience for patients with braces. Following these tips will help you enjoy greater ease of wear while significantly improving both your oral health and the effectiveness of your treatment.

Our team at Solas Orthodontics is always here to support you, offering expert guidance and answering any questions you may have about maintaining your braces and oral health throughout your journey.