Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi guys im new to this forum and have had braces for around 5 months now. The thought only occured to me that there would be a forum totally dedicated to people with braces yesterday and suprisingly there are plenty

Yea.. so anyway my question is.. Do i really have to brush and use my little tiny toilet cleaner thing and floss 3 times a day? My (evil) orthodontist showed me a whole gallery of photos of people who supposably didnt brsh properly and their teeth have a very noticable square in the middle of their teeth where their braces were. He said if i didnt brush and stuff it would stain my teeth and leave scary little square marks on my teeth. Do i really need to floss use my little brush thing and brush my teeth 3 times a day.. or is he over-exagurating. at the moment i only brush for like.. 2 minutes in the morning and maybe 5 at night. I dont really notice anything in my teeth and my dentist is giving me a constant "B" for my oral hygeine mark.

I guess while im here ill ask if you guys reckon chewing gum will actually break your braces or does it just sorta clean your teeth out? lol and also is it ok for me to eat mars bars and stuff with my braces on?

thanx in advance now.. dancing banana time

Hi, and welcome aboard!
I did a couple of things when I had braces on.The first was to purchase a Phillips sonicare tooth brush.I had this before the braces went on,and found a remarkable difference with regard to its stain removal ability.I also brought a small travel tooth brush and a tiny mirror which I kept at work. It is extremely important to keep up a good cleaning regime ,try to brush after every meal if you can,and rinse with a plaque reducing mouthwash before going to bed.Overtime you will see stains appear around brackets etc, so it is best to heed your ortho's advice!
Good luck on your journey, it will be well worth it!
Regards,
Dave.

I read somewhere not to use whitening toothpaste (i think it was on the ArchWired main site) cos it leaves marks on your teeth cos it can't whiten under the brackets....is this not true?

I get horrible yellow stains on my lower front teeth cos i drink so much tea and just get my hygienist to scale it off....will using a whitening toothpaste work? Or leave marks where my brackets are? I'm confused....

hmmm.. ill try whitening toothpaste. Im still sorta worried about the whitening bit. I thought if u used whitening toothpaste it would brighten your teeth so only the part of your teeth thats exposed to the toothpaste would whiten, so it would leave a mark because it doesnt whiten under your brackets?

Been brushing my teeth with a whitening toothpaste and using a whitening mouthwash for about a year now and they look loads better.

I get quite a few 'white teeth' compliments now

I only brush twice a day too (sometimes 3 if I have a quick scrub after lunch just to get the bits out but thats without tooth paste) and still got top marks for oral hygiene yey

Chicken and mushroom pot noodles aren't good for ceramics as they make the ligs go yellow

Hi! Well, as to me I always brush my teeth immediately after I eat, not an hour later, I mean like right after... weather I had been eating vegetables or ice-cream... I ALWAYS use the little thingy to brush in between the brackets, that is every time I brush my teeth. I also use both a conventional tooth brush and an electronic one.
I floss once a day, no less than 5 times a week... and I use mouth wash too, once a day - after I floss.
In my opinion brushing your teeth twice a day isn't enough... no matter how much we try there are always bits of food that get stuck to the brackets and you can't remove without a toothbrush. These bits of food will acid your enamel and start a cavity... you will notice it in the long run. There's no point in having your teeth straight if after all they get damaged.

Good luck,
Joana

i agree with the above post that you want to take the best care of your teeth as you can, as you dont want to go through braces only to have lots of cavitys etc on your nice new straight teeth.

I guess tho how often you brush is up to you, and what you are eating. I think your no when you teeth feel like they could do with a brush, those little brushes are life savers tho to get things out that might be caught up.

On the gum and mars bars question, ive eaten gum regulary since being braced and had no problems, tho you do have to be a bit careful what you are doing! and i do find it helps to remove stubborn bits of food if your not able to brush immediately. Havent personally eaten a mars bar as not to keen, but again as long as your careful i dont really see a prob, just be sure to at least rinse your mouth round with water after, and dont blame me if it gets caught in the wires!

I had braces on for a year and I brushed about three times a day, not after every meal. I'm a college student and don't really have the time to even eat lunch let alone brush. I smoked, drank coffee everyday, drank tea, red wine, etc. I didn't use whitening toothpaste and I think I rinsed with Listerine maybe a few times a week. I didn't floss but maybe once a month becuase it was so time consuming to thread the floss in between the wires. However; after getting my braces taken off they were a very bright shade of white! I was so amazed at how white they really were! Obviously, don't let plaque build up around the brackets and I think you'll be fine!!

I'm a big coffee drinker, so I use a whitening toothpaste to remove the coffee stains. I also think it's okay to use the whitening stuff because the tooth area under the glue isn't being stained everyday. Flossing is also very important! When I brush, I brush all around my brackets, brush along my gumline. As Karen said, quality vs. quantity!