Life with Braces and Aligners
Congratulations! You have started your orthodontic treatment journey and are on your way to a new smile.
The First Few Days
Just like with anything new or different, there is a period of adjustment and learning.
The first few days with braces, aligners, or an orthodontic appliance are always the toughest. During this time, your mouth will need to adjust to the brackets, trays, wires, or the pressure to your teeth associated with orthodontic treatment. It’s perfectly normal to feel some soreness or tightness in your teeth. To help with any discomfort, Dr. Davis recommends taking pain relievers like Ibuprofen or Tylenol and salt water rinses (1 tsp salt to 8 oz water) to help with inflammation and soreness.
Eating softer foods is also recommended to help with initial soreness. Our personal favorites are mashed potatoes, soup, eggs, pasta, rice, ice cream (no nuts or hard candy pieces), smoothies, oatmeal, yogurt, and applesauce. Additionally you can use the orthodontic wax provided in your start bag to help with anything that might be irritating the inside of your mouth. Chapstick is also great for lips.
During Treatment
It is important to follow all treatment instructions while undergoing orthodontic care. This includes wearing rubber bands, maintaining appointments, and steering clear of non-braces friendly foods. Together we can achieve your ideal smile.
Non-braces friendly foods:
- Sugary/acidic drinks (soda, sweet tea, sports or energy drinks)
- Chewing gum with sugar (Sugarless gum is allowed)
- Hard Candy
- Ice
- Nuts
- Popcorn
- Hard bread (pizza crust, French bread)
- Excessive sweets
- Any hard, sticky, gooey, crunchy foods
- Biting into apples, carrots, celery, or corn on the cob with front teeth. Make sure to cut food up into bite-size pieces and chew with your back teeth.
- Do not bite on hard objects like pens, pencils, bottle caps, etc.
Be sure to brush and floss carefully around your braces to keep your teeth and gums healthy. Improper oral hygiene can result in puffy, bleeding gums, cavities, and permanent white spots due to decalcification. Our office provides toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, and everything you need to keep your smile healthy. Cleanings with your general dentist EVERY 6 MONTHS are required. If your oral hygiene becomes a major concern, we may have to discontinue treatment and remove the braces early to prevent further damage to your teeth.
Download our oral hygiene brochure here.
Braces Triage
Sometimes in treatment brackets or buttons can become loose or wires can poke. There is no need to panic and a loose bracket, fixed retainer, or wire is not an emergency. The wonderful thing about braces and retainers is that most issues can be handled at home with just a pair of tweezers or a pair of finger/toenail clippers, wax, and a mirror. Don’t worry about messing anything up. We can fix anything you do!
Pokey/Loose Wire
Take a pair of tweezers and grab the wire. Then using the mirror look for the last bracket and you should see a small tube toward the bottom of the bracket. Use the tweezers to slide the wire back into the tube. It may take a few tries, but it can be done.
If the wire is too stiff, you can’t get it back in, or the last bracket is off so there is no tube for the wire to fit into, ball up some wax (given in your start bag) and place it on the exposed wire until we can cut it in our office. You can also take a pair of fingernail clippers and clip the wire just before the last bracket so that the wire ends between two brackets.
Loose Bracket
If you have a bracket that has become loose and is still on the wire, the easiest fix is to use wax. First prepare the wax by pinching off a piece and then rolling it in between your fingers to warm it up and make it more moldable. Then using a tissue or cotton ball, dry the area where the bracket is located. Drying the area first and keeping it dry will create a seal and prevent the wax from easily falling off. Next press the wax onto the dried area and smooth it over the bracket and tooth.
If the bracket has come off the wire, make sure you save it so that we can rebond it when you come back into our office. You then can either place wax on the pokey wire or clip it using finger nail clippers (cuticle clippers also work very well).
Fixed Retainers
Fixed retainers don’t often become loose, but they are not permanent so it can happen. If your fixed retainer comes all the way off, SAVE THAT WIRE! We can reuse it and rebond it to your teeth. If you don’t save or or lose it, there will be a fee to replace the wire.
If just a portion of the wire has become loose, the first trick to get you more comfortable is using the eraser end of a pencil and pushing the wire towards your teeth. Then if your removable clear retainers still fit (they should if you have been wearing them like you should), you can wear it to create a buffer between your wire and mouth. If you don’t have a removable retainer or they no longer fit, use wax and the steps outlined previously to properly cover the wire located in the loose bracket paragraph.
