How to avoid Tooth Cavities with Dental Braces

October 4, 2022

Keeping your teeth clean and free from cavities and tooth decay is always important, but it’s even more critical when you’re wearing dental braces. When cleaning your mouth while you are wearing braces, you need to pay utmost attention not only to your teeth and gums, but also to the brackets and wires that you’re wearing as a part of the dental braces.
If you take good care of your teeth while wearing braces, you have a perfectly straight teeth as well as stain-free and cavity-free teeth, at the end of the orthodontic treatment. So, the extra time that you spend to take care of your teeth today will be well-worth it in the near future.

Here are a few ways how you can avoid cavities while wearing Dental braces or Invisalign:

1) Brush the right way

Start your Oral Cleaning routine by rinsing your mouth with water before brushing. This helps to loosen the food particles trapped by your braces. This is important because the less time that food sits on your teeth, the less likely it is to cause tooth decay.
While brushing, hold your brush at a 45-degree angle, then angle the brushstrokes down on top of each bracket. Use gentle, circular strokes to clean your teeth as well as your gum line. You’ve got to brush in and around all of the brackets and wires. Don’t forget to also brush your tongue, the inside of your cheeks, and the roof of your mouth.

We recommend you to use an interdental toothbrush which is extremely helpful for cleaning braces, along with your regular toothbrush.

2) Don’t ignore your Dental Floss

“Your loss if you forget to Floss”  Yes, you can (and need to) floss when you’re wearing Dental Braces. At the beginning of your Orthodontic treatment, every dentist shows you how to floss the right way without causing discomfort to your braces. A floss threader can be a very helpful oral cleaning tool to get the floss behind those brackets in your braces. These floss threaders are easily available at any Generic Pharmacy or Super Markets (right next to the regular dental floss). Or, if you want an option that makes your job even more easier, go for water flossers.

3) Stick to a Tooth-Friendly Diet

Every Dentist or Orthodontist will recommend you to avoid food and beverages that are high in acidic content as can damage tooth enamel when consumed frequently. Refer to the list below to know what kind of acidic food and drinks you might have to avoid:

In addition to the ones above, you might want to forego on starchy and sugary foods that may stick to your teeth. This includes gum, candy, chips, muesli, Fruit Bars, toffee etc. Saliva is your body’s natural defense against tooth decay. You need to give saliva plenty of time to wash away acids that form after eating and drinking.

There are foods that can loosen, break or bend wires and bands when you are wearing braces.

Avoid hard foods such as nuts and hard cookies. Items such as apples and carrots should be chopped into small pieces before eating to reduce the stress on your braces.

4) Use Mouthwash & Toothpaste with Fluoride

One of the easiest ways to stay cavity free is by switching to toothpaste that contains fluoride. Fluoride makes your teeth more resistant to the acids produced after eating or drinking. It replaces the minerals that are lost during early stages of tooth decay. Since the risk of cavities are high while wearing braces, the dentists may prescribe other drugstore products with fluoride too that offer you additional protection.

Even after you’ve done a good job brushing and flossing, they aren’t just enough sometimes. Rinsing with a fluoride mouthwash should do the magic here . If you can’t rinse with a mouthwash then try to take out the time to rinse at least with water.

5) Visit your Orthodontist Regularly

Regular dental check-ups are something that are always important, but even more so when you are wearing braces. Make sure to visit your dentist every six months or as recommended by him in your case.

If you haven’t started your orthodontic treatment yet, ring us up and Dr. Schuyler, Our Chief Smile Architect, will be happy to give you a friendly consultation service and discuss treatment options with you.

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Eva Braganca
Eva Braganca
13:41 19 Nov 22
After reading positive reviews, I wanted to give it a try, I must say I had a very good experience. I had a filling done with another dentist for my front tooth, it was not matching my tooth colour.When smiling people used to tell me I have lipstick on my teeth and I had to tell them that it’s a filling and not lipstick. Dr. Schuyler had replaced the filling which is matching my teeth colour. He is very informative and explains everything in details which is easy for the patient to understand. Very happy with their service. In future will be getting my implants done with him. Highly recommended.
Siddanth Shetty
Siddanth Shetty
07:13 11 Nov 22
Cool Dentist period!!I am visiting this clinic from past 3 months, got the best treatment possible. I had a front chipped tooth which Dr Schuyler fixed and made it look as it was naturally ,which boosted my confidence in social and professional life. I was treated by Dr Anthea also she was the sweetest doctor ever taking care of her patients in the most professional way. The staff is too good with the patients , giving follow-up calls and reminders in a very polite and gentle way.Overall one of the best Dentist clinic. Worth it.
E 19
E 19
07:25 14 Jul 22
With the pandemic in 2019, I never consulted a dentist until I moved back to Goa, India, last month (June 2022).As I was googling and looking for a good dentist in Margao, I came across - Smile Craft. Their website was nice and fancy among all the other dental clinics, but I wasn't sure if they were the best.Yet, I thought I would give them a shot. My primary concern was my molar which went wrong after I did a root canal years back. So I got my appointment booked and was consulted by Dr. Schuyler.The first thing I mentioned to him was let's extract the molar instead of fixing it, as I had no hope of improving it. However, Dr. Schuyler wasn't ready to extract it and believed it still could be fixed. Dr. Schuyler and their team always provide the best advice to get that beautiful smile crafted :)Well, If it could be all fixed - I was all up for it. After a couple of visits, my teeth are as good as they could be. Their team uses A1 quality dental filling; you can't even notice you have a filling. It matches your tooth color, unlike some dentists using cheap quality, which feels like POP stuck on your teeth.Also, they're very cautious while completing their dental procedure with no pain at all. I nearly dozed off once.I think the Smile Craft team is one of the best out there. I recommend it to everyone looking to get their smile crafted by the best team - SMILE CRAFT is the place!!
dcosta
dcosta
20:37 23 Apr 22
Dr Schuyler is very friendly and truly a spectacular dentist. The quality of service I received during my treatment is simply outstanding. I have done 1 filling, and one tooth implant ,which was done with gentle care and no pain, during the implant Dr explain everything to me what he was doing which I think is very professional.Overall my experience in the surgery was amazing. I would like to say special thanks to Dr Schuyler ,and everyone who works at Smile Craft ,you all doing a great job.Highly recommend
Pavitra Sahay
Pavitra Sahay
13:11 21 Jan 22
Dr Schuyler is one of the best dentists in Goa! Had visited him for a couple of tooth colored fillings and was very impressed. His work stands out, I cannot even tell that my tooth has a filling! It looks so natural! The clinic is clean and the staff is very polite and professional. Yes, it did take me time to get an appointment, but now I realize why. Certainly recommend Smile Craft to anyone looking at getting quality dental treatment done.
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