Have you recently acquired braces from an orthodontist Liverpool? The path to straighten teeth can be bumpy at the start, but there are ways to make the experience more manageable with a couple of easy lifestyle changes.
Read on to find out what these are!
Be more conscientious about dental hygiene than before
Brushing and flossing are trickier with metal attached to your teeth. Thankfully, mastering cleaning your teeth doesn’t require skill but time, practice, and dedication.
You’ll need to increase how often you brush your pearly whites, from twice a day to after every meal and snack.
Your brushing technique should also change to ensure each tooth is properly cleaned. Follow the steps below to optimise your oral health regime.
- Position your toothbrush on the gum line at a 45-degree angle and start brushing
- Then clean the top of each bracket with the toothbrush angled downwards
- Do the same at the bottom of each bracket but this time, reposition your brush upwards
- Repeat stages two and three for every pearly white
Flossing, which is mandatory for regular brushing, is even more essential with braces to remove caught food trapped between teeth and underneath the brackets. Ask your orthodontist to show you how if you’re new to flossing.
Navigating brushing and flossing with braces may be difficult and feel strange initially, but will feel natural over time.
Stick to a healthy diet
Brace wires can snap despite being made from durable materials. Because of this risk, certain foods are off-limits if you’re a braces wearer. Avoid anything hard and chewy for the time you wear braces like popcorn, hard sweets and toffee.
Soft foods are brace friendly, chicken, eggs, rice, yoghurts and other semi-solids should form part of your daily diet.
Don’t be disheartened by these limitations. You can still enjoy food, but you’ll have to be more mindful and creative. Instead of taking a chunk out of an apple, peel and cube it into bite-sized pieces and steam and boil crunchy vegetables to soften them.
Remember that having to cut some of your favourite treats is a temporary and worthy sacrifice, considering you’re gaining an attractive smile.
You should also try to eliminate or reduce how much sugar and starch you consume. Besides negatively affecting your physical health if consumed excessively, these foods produce plaque and acid that cause dental decay.
Keep the channels of communication open with your orthodontist
Braces can hurt and may feel highly uncomfortable at times, but they shouldn’t leave you completely debilitated all the time.
If your braces are making you miserable, chat with your orthodontist. Chances are, you have a broken bracket or the wires are too tight which can be fixed with minor tweaks and adjustments.
Use a mouthguards
If you play contact sports, you’ll know how painful a mouth injury can be without braces. Now imagine hurting your mouth with a straightening aid.
Not only will you be in recovery for a couple of days, but you may also have to pay to fix broken wires.
Protect your pearly whites from painful accidents by wearing a mouthguard.