Metal Mouth Message Board

i guess i'm just way too self conscious about keeping my teeth clean and everything... but this has gotten waaay out of hand because it takes me 30 friggin minutes to brush my teeth with the braces on.. how do i brush? i make sure that i go thru above each bracket first and brush in a circular motion which takes around 10-15 secs per tooth.. and do the same thing but this time below each bracket..

and what makes it extra long? since i brush way too long and my mouth is left open for a long period of time, the toothpaste keeps falling out.. as if i'm drooling or something. haha. so i wipe it off my chin.

well how do you guys brush your teeth? do you just go thru above and below the brackets and not one by one as mentioned above? haha and how long?

sorry if i'm weird but my bf's complaining about this. i need to know how to brush my teeth fast and effectively.

I use a sonicare toothbrush and I probably take about 3 minutes to brush my teeth. I generally will do above the brackets at an angle and below at an angle. This way it gets down in the wire. As i'm finishing up I will brush the surface of the brackets too.
I know I wasn't very descriptive, but I hope it helps a bit...

4 minutes here.

Oral B with the Ortho head:



It's very soft with shorter bristles in the middle

1. Squeeze a glob of stuff on the brush
2. Before switching on give a light brush / swipe across the teeth - all the way around to spread the paste
3. Switch on and you can press the head over each bracket straight on (because if the design / cut of the bristiles it will spin every where around where the bracket is glued to the tooth
4. Do that all the way around
5. Then angle up from the bottom all the way around and do again angle down from the top all the way around

4 minutes includes every where else of course.

If you truly are brushing for 30 min, I would suspect you may be developing some OCD tendencies. Three to four minutes is plenty of time to do an excellent job.

I also use an Oral B with the little round head- I do it straight on and then from above and below in each bracket and thats taking me about 3 or 4 minutes. I would think 30 minutes is way too long!!!

About 3 mins for me - angled at the gum line, angled towards the top of the braces, angled up at the bottom of the braces and then the backs and biting surfaces of my molars.

Should not take you anywhere near 30 mins!

You're in danger of causing gum recession if you are going this long and this hard.

Get an egg timer and tell yourself you MUST get the job done with two turns of the timer. If a little toothpaste falls on your chin don't worry about it - just quick wipe your chin and continue. If you really can't get over this you need to speak with your dentist...have him watch you brush your teeth and he/she can help you cut at 25 minutes of your current procedure.

at night i spend maybe 20mins cleaning out food with the proxy, brushing, flossing, using act mouthwash
the flossing takes the longest for me
and im still getting plaque, im calling my hygienist monday
i can relate to dribbling while brushing and everything leaking down my chin, i haven't brushed in public since i got braced but i know its gonna be super embarrassing, i leave it there till im done and just rinse my mouth and chin

I felt much better when I read this. I've had braces for 3 days and I spend about 30 min. brushing my teeth every time I brush. I'm not sure if i'm doing it correctly, so I think I'm overcompensating. The pics the ortho showed me have me paranoid over dental hygiene. To make matters worse it takes much longer when I have to floss. I can't wait till I get the hang of flossing with braces. Today at a family event, I excused myself to do a quick job of brushing which took about 10 minutes. I'm still nervous my teeth aren't clean enough. I'm sure it'll ease up, or become easier, eventually.

Hang in there. I feel your unease.

You just jogged my memory (and it's only been 8 months), the first few days or weeks or even few weeks, one tip-toes around brushing, even eating for fear the things will come off. I recall that now like it was yesterday - specially with the brushing -- even if I tell you these things are bolted on for life, it will still take some time to gain confidence to give them a good old scrubbing with a tooth brush, you feel you will break something at first -- that feeling lasts a while. Don't worry they ain't going anywhere until the ortho pulls out the circular saw.

If you are still having difficulties and a little embarrased to brush in front of your ortho then you should check out the video martinboyce did. He showed his entire routine (minus flossing as it was early and painful still). This should help you figure out what you are supposed to do and how long it should take. Not sure if the youtube link will work but if it doesn't then click the next link which is straight to his braces story on the page with his video #3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4hU1LfXZsk

viewtopic.php?t=24233&postdays=0&postor ... &start=105

In the beginning, i have to admit i was extremely self conscious cuz it was a hole brand new thing and experience, so i spent a lot more time cleaning my teeth but i guess i wanted to make sure that everything was clean. It seemed that every week, i got a lot more comfortable so didn't take as long while i still did a good job on my teeth to make sure i don't get any infections or anything. It generally takes me about 3 to 4 minutes to brush my teeth. before brushing i use the proxy brush, sulca brush, then tooth brush, rinsing and then mouth wash to finish off the job. all together it takes around 10 min to get everything all cleaned up. This routine is done 2 a day. The other times that i eat during the day 'll use the proxy brush and the sulca brush and rinse my mouth really good to get the food out. I don't think it is really a good idea to brush your teeth more then 2 a day so i did it this way.

you tend to take longer to brush in the beginning. Once the novelty wears off you will do it in a much quicker time. Just make sure you aren't brushing too hard.

Zondrae wrote:you tend to take longer to brush in the beginning. Once the novelty wears off you will do it in a much quicker time. Just make sure you aren't brushing too hard.

hahha i forgot to mention the part about not brushing to hard. indeed don't do that. i accidently did that for a second and then got shooting pain and I vowed never to brush hard again. now i brush very very soft and there is no more pain:D

With SuperFloss and an electric tooth brush like a Braun, the time spent brushing and cleaning is minimal.