Metal Mouth Message Board

Before braces: 25 years without cavities.

Braced for roughly 2.5 years.

Now in retainers (since yesterday afternoon): still no cavities.

Just keep up your oral hygiene habits, the cement had flouride in it to prevent cavities between your teeth and the brackets/bands.

Well I took reasonably good care of my teeth when I had my braces on, I just got them off 4/4/06>But, on my dentist appointment last week I asked the hygentist to remove the stuff on my back molars where my bands were that the assisatant at my orthodontist said they would remove, she told me i The tooth was decalcifieda and that a cavity was trying to form there. So now for 6 months I have to use flouride gell to help prevent the cavity and me tooth back to normal. IBTW if this tooth forms a cavity it would be my first ever in the nearly 14 years of my life.

I just got my braces removed a month and a half ago. I had it for 2 years. I took extra good care of it. Cleaning every 3 months instead of 6, brush, floss & wax. Just yesterday, my dentist found a cavity which was formed under my molar band (lower last molar). it was in a gap where food could have been squeezed into the gum. Its so deep that it might be in the root. I have to make a decision if I want to get periodontic surgery, a root canal or have it extracted. So upset. Could be since I knew this had a big gap, I kept brushing with those little brushes for the gaps (interdentals i think) and that must have pushed some food in deeper. So, my advice is to brush first with a normal toothbrush, then floss, then waterpick. Good luck.

Yes, it was under the molar band, at the gumline in between the last & second to the last molar. My dentist feels partly to blame since she always did the cleaning and that she didnt notice that spot. I wish she'd shoulder the bill for the treatment for the cavity. Thanks for your reply, still crossing my fingers.

I had teeth cleaning today after I got my braces removed yesterday.

I had two cavities between premolars that are adjacent to each other, one is a new one and another is an old filling that had cracked.

That's a good question..I am 1 month in and I am afraid of this happening..I also am afraid food or liquid can get into my trapped in the molar brackets. When I go for a cleaning I would hope would be able to notice if I was getting a cavity there.

As long as you clean your teeth as your orthodontist instructed, you should be fine. I had 5 cavities filled before getting braces. 3 months into braces, I had a cleaning where my dentist told me that I was doing an excellent job with hygiene and that the only spots of concern were pre-existing to my braces and currently underneath molar bands so they were being more or less protected. It's definitely a process, but brushing and flossing before bed every night and brushing after meals throughout the day really does work.

Having braces didn't cause me to have cavities. I had work done before the braces went on and then it was several years before I got another cavity. I was also obsessive about my hygiene while I was in treatment.

Is air floss useful in cleaning between the teeth?