How to look after fixed braces
Now you have your fixed braces fitted, we would like you to follow a few important points:
- Your teeth will be feeling tight now. After a couple of hours, you may get an ache and discomfort from your teeth. If it is troubling you, do not hesitate to take some pain killers. Any of the painkillers that you normally take for aches and pains are fine. In some extreme cases, patients may need to take pain killers for a couple of days. Unfortunately, this discomfort is unavoidable as it is caused by pressure on your teeth.
- If you are prone to mouth ulcers, the brace may irritate your lips and the insides of your cheeks for the first few days. In your tooth brushing kit you will find some orthodontic wax. Pull a little piece of wax off a strip, and squash it over the offending bracket. Do dry the bracket first or it will not stick. This will give you temporary relief from the irritation.
- From now on, your teeth are only for eating and nothing else – certainly not for biting finger nails and pens. Even when eating, there are limitations. This is because a special type of glue is used to fit your brace onto your teeth. This glue is removed after treatment but care must be taken so that the brace is not accidently damaged. The things that you have to avoid are: boiled sweets; toffees; chewing gum; hard candy bars; wine gums and nuts. Also, you will need to be extremely careful with hard crusty bread, uncut apples and pears, corn on the cob and meat on the bone.
- If any brackets become dislodged from the teeth, you must contact the surgery. You must try to avoid breakages because every time the brace is repaired, we take a step backwards; that means the treatment will take longer and brace stays on for longer.
- Try to keep your teeth very clean using your regular adult toothpaste and orthodontic toothbrushes provided in your kit. A nurse will demonstrate how to do this.
- Try to cut down the amount of sugar in your diet. Normal cooking and desserts are fine but sweets, chocolate, fizzy drinks, milkshakes and fruit juice (fresh or cordial) will damage your teeth. If you are going to have some of these, have them with main meals and not in-between meals. For the in-between time, stay with plain water, milk, bread, cheese, crisps and savoury biscuits.
