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Keep your mouth and teeth clean when wearing braces

With fixed braces, it is not so easy to practice good oral hygiene. Food residues easily get stuck on the brackets and wires, which means that more easily dental plaque forms there. If you or your child wears fixed braces, daily brushing must therefore be particularly thorough to prevent tooth decay and gingivitis. But even a loose brace must be cleaned appropriately, otherwise bacteria can accumulate there and oral diseases can develop. In this article, you will learn how to clean your fixed braces and best brush your teeth with braces. In addition, we will show you how to clean loose braces and what you should generally pay attention to when cleaning braces and your diet if you wear a brace.

Clean your teeth with fixed braces

If you wear fixed braces, you have to plan a little more time for daily dental and braces care, 2 times about five to ten minutes a day. This is how brushing teeth works best with braces:

Rinse your mouth vigorously with water to eliminate food debris.
Now position the toothbrush at a 45° angle to the teeth so that you can get behind the wires from both above and below. Now brush each tooth individually in circular movements from the inside as well as from the outside. It is best to use a medium-hard toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste.
The chewing surfaces and insides of the teeth can be brushed as usual.
Clean the areas behind the wires as well as the interdental spaces with an interdental brush or a modern device such as the Philips Airfloss Ultra. This makes it particularly easy for you to clean your interdental spaces with fixed braces and thus supports your oral health.
After cleaning the teeth and braces, rinse your mouth again with water and round off the program with an antibacterial mouthwash.

Our tip: For brushing your teeth, use a sonic toothbrush instead of a conventional manual toothbrush. The Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean, for example, removes plaque safely and gently. In addition, it generates a liquid flow that supports cleaning and also reaches hard-to-reach places.

How to clean your loose braces

Although daily dental care with loose braces is much easier than with a firm brace, there are a few things to consider when cleaning braces to ensure your oral health. Loose braces, for example, must be cleaned after each meal. You will also need two different toothbrushes – one for the braces and one for the teeth. How to clean your loose braces:

Take the braces out of your mouth and brush your teeth thoroughly.
Hold the brace under running water and then clean it with circular movements. To do this, use a slightly harder toothbrush and some toothpaste.
It is best to clean your loose braces only every one to two weeks with cleaning tablets.
Regularly wash out the brace storage box well to prevent the formation of mold.

In general, the following applies: With a brace – whether loose or firm – the saliva can not rinse the teeth as abundantly as without braces. This can hinder natural mouth cleaning2 and promote tooth decay, gum problems and bad breath.

If you wear braces, it is also advisable to pay attention to a low-sugar diet to reduce the risk of tooth decay. Also avoid too hard food (bread crusts, etc.), as these can damage the braces. Sticky food (toffee or other sweets of the kind) is difficult to remove from the braces, which is why you'd better avoid it.

As you can see, there is a lot to consider – but once you have made the daily routine of cleaning braces and teeth a habit, the procedure will soon be easy for you. The result is wonderfully healthy, clean and straight teeth as soon as the braces are outside.