First Day In Braces..Anyone Got N E Tips Or Tricks?

[amberfields]

Ok so today was my rist day in braces...got full metal upper and lower with blue o-rings. Gonna have em a year and a half to 2 years. The process of putting them on went pretty smoothly with no pain (except from that nasty tasting cement!) And, like you all predicted, braces are a million times better then those darn spacers!. Im havin a little bit of overall soreness, but nothing too major. Soo heres my routing so far..I brush 3 times a day, first using a small 'christmas tree' type brush thing to clean behind my wire. Then after every brushing i rinse with some listerine. After my bed time brushing i floss and coat my teeth with some brush on fluoride gel. Also im being extremely careful not to bite with my front teeth, although it is very annoying. Anyone got any thing I should be doin that im leavin out, or some tips or tricks for me? Because im extremely paranoid that im not cleanin these suckers good....exspeciall the molar bands (as mentioned in a previous post) and im deathly afraid of getting bad breath. Any help is appreciated! Thanks Guys!

[JoeMama]

Hi amberfields. I have a SonicCare toothbrush and it seems to be working very very well. It cleans so well that I never find anything with the "christmas tree" shaped brush, although I use it anyway just to be sure. The only down side is that it's kind of intense when you first use it, so newly braced teeth might be a little freaked out. Good luck!

[sydsmom]

Sounds like your cleaning routine is pretty reasonable to me! Mine is a little more involved, but I'm paranoid about getting cavities. I won't bore you with the details . I do use a Sonicare for brushing, and highly recommend it if you can afford it. Otherwise, make sure you're holding your brush at an angle that will get between the gums and brackets.

Also, you may not be feeling any irritations on your lips or cheeks yet, but make sure to rinse with plenty of warm salt water -- even if you're not sore. It helps SO much!! And you won't develop bad breath if you brush your tongue.

Good luck with your first few days!!

[Flora2006]

Congrats on getting your braces. As it was said, make sure to rinse with salted water, and use wax when you need it.

[katmc_tx]

amberfields I've had my braces on for about a month now and a few people suggested a waterpik. I went out and bought two of them, one for home and one for the office. I love it because it really cleans out all the food after a meal. Now I floss everynight instead of after every meal because I feel that the waterpik gets everything. Good luck!!!

[ingyandbert]

I use a Waterpik, a regular brush, a proxy brush (what you call a Christmas tree brush), prescription fluoride mouthwash, and floss. For occasional mouth sores (which are hardly ever a problem anymore), I use salt water rinses, Glyoxide to affected area, and wax. Sounds like you’ve got a pretty solid routine going.

[newsmile]

Hey,

I am getting mine on tomorrow. I hope it goes as well as yours seem to be doing. The spacers are incredibly bad! It seems like it can only get better. Unfortunatley (or fortuntatley) I got a call yesterday from an interviewing manager, and he wanted to schedule a job interview with me at noon. I will have to go straight from the ortho to the job interview - should be fun. He has never met me in person, so he will have no idea about how new the scrapmetal really will be!!

[missing_tooth]

I can get most everything with a regular toothbrush now. Not at first though. I also give my mouth a serious water swishing around when I eat though.

- Missing Tooth -