5 Tips for Maintaining Your Braces: A Complete Care Guide

Getting braces marks the beginning of your journey toward a straighter smile, but taking good care of your teeth and your braces is a big part of how successful that journey will be. Teens who diligently follow their orthodontist's care instructions typically complete their treatment on schedule, while those who neglect proper maintenance often delay the expected timeline for treatment.

Whether you've just got your braces put on or you're already several weeks into treatment, how you care for your braces impacts your future smile and your overall oral health. 

Read on to learn five practical oral healthcare tips from the top orthodontist in Sheboygan that will help protect your teeth and help you stay on track with your orthodontic treatment.

Five Ways to Keep Your Teeth and Gums Healthy During Orthodontic Treatment

While braces work their magic to align your teeth, they also create new challenges for you keeping your teeth clean. The brackets and wires that straighten your smile also become perfect hiding spots for plaque and food particles that increase your risk of cavities and gum disease. Fortunately, there are only a few things you need to keep in mind to make sure you have healthy gums and a pearly white smile when your braces come off: 

1. Stick to a Regular Schedule for Brushing and Flossing

Braces create countless tiny spaces where food and bacteria can hide. This makes following a regular brushing and flossing schedule your first line of defense against potential problems and helps prevent tooth decay. Your oral hygiene schedule should include: 

• Brushing after every meal, not just morning and night, to remove food particles before they can feed harmful bacteria around your brackets 
• Use a soft-bristled toothbrush angled at 45 degrees toward the gumline, combined with an orthodontic brush for cleaning between and around brackets, which are notoriously hard to reach
• Floss every day using orthodontic floss threaders or water flossers to make it easier to navigate around wires 
• Use a fluoride toothpaste, which strengthens tooth enamel and helps protect against cavities 

2. Stay Away From Foods That Can Break or Get Stuck in Your Braces

What you eat affects both your braces and your teeth during treatment. Adopting a brace-friendly diet can reduce gum irritation and aid in cavity prevention. Here are a few things to keep in mind: 

• Hard foods like candies, nuts, popcorn, and ice can damage your braces by bending wires or knocking brackets off your teeth. This might make your treatment take longer and force you to make emergency visits to your orthodontist. 
• Sticky foods are even worse. Things like caramel, taffy, and chewy candies can stick to your braces and be very hard to clean off. This trapped food can lead to cavities. 
• Healthy, crunchy foods like apples, carrots, or corn should be cut into small pieces that you can chew with your back teeth instead of biting with your front teeth. 
• Try to eat less sugary foods and drinks while you have braces. Sugar feeds bacteria that make acid, which can damage your teeth, especially around your brackets, where plaque builds up. 

Changing what you eat might be hard at first, but remember, it's only for a short time, and you'll end up with straight, healthy teeth that will last your whole life.

3. Don’t Skip Your Orthodontic Appointments

Your orthodontist appointments are important for keeping your teeth healthy and moving in the right direction. At these visits, your orthodontist adjusts your wires and rubber bands to guide your teeth to where they should be. If you often skip or reschedule appointments, your treatment could take much longer. 

These visits also help catch problems like teeth wearing down in strange ways, weakening enamel, or swollen gums before they become bigger issues that are harder to fix. Your orthodontist can also spot areas you're missing when you clean your teeth and show you how to do better before any permanent damage happens. 

4. Know What to Do in an Orthodontic Emergency

Sometimes, problems happen even when you're being careful, and knowing what to do can save you pain and keep your treatment on track: 

• If a bracket gets loose but is still attached to the wire, don't remove it. Instead, cover any sharp edges with orthodontic wax until you can visit your orthodontist.
• If a bracket falls off completely, keep it safe and call your orthodontist's office right away to fix it. 
• When a wire pokes out and hurts your cheek or gums, use a cotton swab to gently push it flat against your tooth. Then, put orthodontic wax over it for comfort until it can be fixed properly. 
• For bigger problems like pain, injuries to your mouth, or anything that makes it hard to breathe, get help immediately. 

While dental wax and pain relievers like ibuprofen can help temporarily with minor issues, they're just short-term fixes. Always call your orthodontist quickly when something breaks or comes loose. Waiting too long for repairs can let your teeth move in ways they shouldn't, which might make your treatment take longer.

5. Follow Your Orthodontist's Instructions Carefully

Extra tools like rubber bands, retainers, or headgear are important parts of your treatment that fix alignment problems braces can't solve alone. These devices put specific pressure on your teeth that only work if you use them for the right amount of time. Do your very best to wear these dental appliances exactly as your orthodontist recommends, and be honest about how well you are able to stick to your treatment plan so your dentist and parents can help if needed. 

Where to Find the Best Orthodontist in Sheboygan and Manitowoc

Just Orthodontics is not your average orthodontic clinic. Our clinic is the only orthodontic clinic where you will find personalized care, modern dental technology, and decades of orthodontic excellence all in one place. With over 150 years of combined expertise and a commitment to innovation, our dedicated team tailors every treatment plan to fit your unique needs, whether you're a teen navigating bite alignment or an adult looking into Invisalign. 

Our flexible scheduling, including early morning and after-school appointments, means your orthodontic journey won’t disrupt your daily life. Backed by a century of trusted care in Sheboygan and powered by the latest tools in orthodontics, Just Orthodontics makes it easier and more comfortable to love your smile at any age.