Brushing your teeth properly with a dental appliance.
To keep your teeth and gums clean, it is important to brush your teeth thoroughly at least twice a day for three minutes.
It is also important to remember that brushing needs to be even more thorough to avoid letting deposits build up around the brackets.
Position the toothbrush with the bristles pointing down to brush the top of the brackets, and bristles pointing up for the bottom. Brush back and forth, starting with the back brackets. Be careful not to forget to brush the bands as well!
Brushing your teeth with the interdental (conical) brush
Next, put a little toothpaste on the small conical brush and pass it between each bracket as well as under the archwire, focusing carefully on the edges of the brackets.
Once brushing is complete, the brackets should be clean and shiny!
The consequences of poor brushing
Brushing your teeth isn’t just about removing food stuck between the teeth or the orthodontic appliance. It also removes dental plaque, which is the main cause of cavities and gingivitis.
This plaque is a kind of sticky film that is both transparent and very resistant. Constantly forming in the mouth, it is mainly made up of bacteria that convert the sugars in our daily diet into harmful acids. These attack the enamel that protects our teeth… and that’s how cavities form. The bacteria present in dental plaque also produce toxic substances that irritate the gums and can cause inflammation.
To effectively protect against cavities and avoid gingivitis, you need to make sure dental plaque has no chance to build up… in particular by brushing your teeth every day, morning and evening, with a fluoride toothpaste. This is essential for healthy teeth and gums.
From an orthodontic point of view, it has been proven that teeth move more easily and more quickly when teeth and gums are clean and healthy. It is therefore very much in your interest to keep your teeth in perfect condition and follow all of your orthodontist’s instructions throughout your orthodontic treatment, as this will help complete it within the planned timeframe.
After treatment, the reward is a well-deserved beautiful smile! The patient will also have acquired all the good habits needed to take care of their teeth in order to keep this beautiful smile for the rest of their life!
What foods should be avoided to prevent damaging the appliance?
Avoid hard foods such as apples, carrots, or baguette, as well as sticky foods such as chewing gum, caramels, etc. By giving up bad habits such as fidgeting with the appliance, biting your nails, or chewing on pencils, you avoid damaging the appliance.
