Caring For Your Braces
Sherman Oaks, CA
At Dougherty Orthodontics, we offer the best orthodontic treatment to help fix your teeth and restore your smile. Dental braces are very effective in straightening and aligning the teeth, which helps to treat problems such as teeth misalignment, jawbone misalignment, and bite alignment issues. However, the results delivered by braces rely heavily on the care and maintenance provided. Therefore, if you take care of your braces, you can expect great results, and at a faster rate.
On the other hand, poorly maintained braces are likely to deliver inadequate results. For this reason, protecting your braces should be a priority to ensure that they are in perfect condition. Below is a look at some of the ways you can take care of your braces.
Proper Oral Hygiene While Wearing Braces
Braces come with brackets and wires, which create several nooks and crannies when they are fixed on your teeth. These nooks and crannies can easily trap food and dental plaque, thus allowing the creation of acids that can cause tooth decay and lead to teeth and gum infection. Aside from the dental problems, the trapped food, plus the acids created by the oral bacteria, can cause damage to the structure of the braces. Therefore, you should maintain proper oral hygiene to prevent these problems from occurring.
Oral hygiene with braces is, however, not always easy, given that they make it hard to reach all parts of your mouth. However, you can compensate for this challenge by brushing your teeth regularly after every meal, daily flossing, and regular rinsing with an antibacterial mouthwash. You should also have regular professional dental cleanings while you are wearing braces.
Proper Eating Habits
The effectiveness of braces can be affected by the foods and drinks you consume, and even how you eat. For example, sticky foods can easily stick onto your braces, making it harder to clean them, and in some situations, damaging the braces. Eating sugary foods and drinks can also increase the number of oral bacteria trapped on the braces, leading to tooth decay, infection, and even damage to the braces. It is also possible to damage your braces by biting into and chewing hard foods.
Therefore, when you get your braces, it is important to stick to a friendly diet to reduce the risk of damaging them. This means avoiding sticky foods, sugary foods, and any foods that might require excessive force to tear and chew. If you have to chew hard foods and crunchy foods such as vegetables or sticky foods such as pizza, make sure that you cut them into small pieces first before chewing them.
Wearing Protective Gear While Engaging In Sports
Another way your braces can be damaged is when you are engaged in sports, especially contact sports. In case of a blow to your mouth during sports activities, your braces can be damaged, or even worse, cause you an injury. However, you can avoid this by wearing protective equipment such as a mouthguard and helmet. Our office can make your child a custom mouthguard that fits with their treatment and protects your investment!
Aside from sports, it is also possible to suffer injuries to the mouth when you are walking around, running, or doing other normal stuff. Since you cannot wear protective equipment all the time, being aware of your surroundings and avoiding any risks that can lead to mouth injuries is the only way you can protect your braces and your teeth.
Braces can fix your dental problems and restore your smile, but only if you maintain them in perfect condition. Call us, Dougherty Orthodontics, at (818) 986-6223 for more tips on protecting your braces.