Braces Info
Parts of your braces
Braces are complicated, each little part has their own names.
Here are the most common bits and pieces to your braces, this will help you understand what your orthodontist may be referring to, and for you communicate more clearly with our team
Brackets are individually glued to each tooth. The archwire is engaged into the brackets and applies a constant, gentle pressure to guide the tooth into their proper positions.
Looking after your braces
To make sure your treatment stays on track, we ask you to look after your new braces. The braces needs to stay firmly on your teeth so that our wires can move them as efficiently as possible.
Cleaning Teeth and Braces
Keeping your teeth and your braces clean is EXTREMELY Important. If you leave yesterday’s lunch on your braces and last week’s toast on your teeth, it often leads to bad breathe, puffy bleeding gums and chalky white scars on your teeth! These seriously detract from the beauty of your smile!
We recommend you spend 3-5 minutes brushing your teeth and your braces. Twice a day, morning and night. Take a little travel toothbrush for a quick scrub after meals during the day!
Electric Toothbrush or Manual? Which ever one you enjoy using more! They all do the same job.
Interdental Braces
There will be one of these little brushes in your care pack.
Think of it as a small brush for those hard to reach places to get all the pesky bits of food out from your teeth.
Rinse your interdental brush with water and leave out to dry. It can be reused until the brush loses shape, and can be easily re-purchased at all major supermarkets, chemists and also from our clinics.
Orthodontic Wax
For those sharp, pokey bits
If a certain part of your braces is irritating your cheeks, or tongue. Dry the area with a tissue, break a small piece of wax off and warm it between your fingers. Then press the wax onto the offending part of the brace for temporary relief.
Warm, salty water mouth rinses will help any ulcers heal up real quick! Bonjela from the chemist is great for soothing sore spots in the mouth. If it hasn’t gone away in a few days, give us a call!
Diet
Your teeth will be a bit tender after adjustments. It is best to eat soft foods in the following days. This includes yoghurt, soup, bananas, soft pasta, rice, fish, lentils and curries.
It is important that you limit your intake of sweet and acidic foods and drinks, this includes soft drinks (Coke, pepsi etc) fruit juice, wines, and gummy lollies.
You must also avoid hard or sticky foods are they can damage your braces, or become lodged in them, so please avoid hard crusty bread, muesli bars, nuts, popcorn, chewing gum, minties, toffees.
Elastics
Braces straighten teeth but sometimes elastics are required to correct your bite.
Your orthodontist will let you know if you need to wear these.
They come in packets of 200, with an Animal name representing the strength of the elastics.
They are attached to your braces by YOU, changed a few times a day to maintain their stretch and generally worn FULL TIME. So it is important that you wear your elastics as prescribed, the more you wear them, the sooner you can stop wearing them.
Wearing elastics only half of the time means your bite moves in the right direction, then falls back when the elastics are not worn!
Mouthguards
If you need a mouthguard made up while in braces, let us know and we will allocate some extra time for this 🙂
If you have knocked your teeth during treatment, regardless of how minor, please let your Orthodontist know of this!
At the completion of your treatment, we recommend a custom made dental mouthguard by your dentist
Please continue to see your family dentist at regular intervals to maintain your dental health during your orthodontic jounery with us