Why You Still Need Dental Cleanings During Braces

Braces are a great way to achieve a perfect look, but having a beautiful smile requires dental hygiene, especially for people who have braces on. A common misconception is that wearing braces will automatically have a positive impact on the patient’s oral hygiene, and they will forget that dental cleaning is compulsory during this duration.

The Cypress Dental Office TX provides information on why it is important to use dental cleanings while wearing braces to help protect teeth and gums.

The Challenges Of Braces And Oral Hygiene

When you wear braces, it becomes much more challenging for you to uphold appropriate oral hygiene. Brackets and wires can trap food particles, leading to plaque buildup that can cause problems like:

• Tooth Decay: When your braces are not cleaned routinely or well, the formation of tartar starts growing around the braces, especially brackets, and you are likely to develop a cavity.
• Gum Disease: Food debris that accumulates at the gum line or around the brackets can cause gingivitis, a stage of gum disease and inflammation. If not treated, gingivitis may develop into more complex gum diseases.

Visits to Cypress Family Dentist for maintenance appointments help eliminate these problems and ensure that your teeth remain healthy throughout the orthodontic phase.

Why Dental Cleanings Are Crucial During Braces

No matter how careful you are with your brushing and flossing routine, you will certainly need professional cleaning to maintain the health of your teeth. Here’s why you should continue regular cleanings with your Cypress Dental Office TX while wearing braces:

1. Reaching Areas You Can’t Clean
With a population of over 7 billion worldwide, there are some areas you just cannot physically clean. Braces make navigation within the mouth tricky especially as you try to clean around the brackets and the wires. Even if you brush and floss religiously you cannot thoroughly clean all sides of your teeth that have braces on. Genuinely professional cleanings employ instruments that can reach into these places to force off even more plaque and tartar.

2. Preventing Gum Disease
Braces may also affect your gums since they can rub against them, which makes it rather easy for bacterial deposits that cause gingivitis to develop. Cleaning is important because it helps to have bacteria scraped off the gumline in your mouth and your gums are okay. The cleanings minimize the chances of getting gum disease and maintain your gums in their pristine form with or without the brace’s wear.

3. Preventing Tooth Decay
The presence of food debris and the buildup of plaque in braces combine to contribute to a higher risk of developing cavities in your teeth. This check-up prevents decay because a professional cleaning ensures that your teeth are very clean, including the sides of the brackets and wires. This is important in avoiding any dental harm and to guarantee that your teeth will look great once the braces are taken off.

4. Avoiding Staining And Decalcification
A question that many patients receiving these treatments may have is the issue of stains and decalcification, where a patient has white spot formation after the removal of the braces. This is prevented as dental cleanings ensure that plaques that cause such problems are eliminated from the teeth.

5. Monitoring Your Oral Health
The slight disadvantage of having a dental clean is that it affords your dentist a chance to examine the general health of your teeth and gums. This helps them identify any early signs of possible cavities or gum diseases in the process.

These problems should therefore be dealt with as early as possible to avoid other severe implications in your mouth while under orthodontic treatment.

What To Expect During A Dental Cleaning With Braces

When you come for cleaning at Cypress Dental Office TX, the hygienist always scrapes around the brackets, wires, and other orthodontic appliances. The process includes:

• Scaling: Your hygienist will use a scaler to scrape off the hard deposits, mostly around the brackets and between your teeth where the tartar has formed.
• Polishing: After scaling, your teeth will undergo a scaling and root planing procedure aimed at providing your teeth with a smooth surface and removing stains that are pointed on the tooth surface. It also prevents other plough from sticking to the teeth if/when they are formed in the future.
• Fluoride Treatment: Your dental surgeon may prescribe a fluoride application to your teeth to minimize the risk of cavities formation. The further protection that fluoride gives to your enamel as well as those additional safeguards you need when having the braces.

Maintaining Oral Hygiene at Home

Here are some tips from Cypress Family Dentist to keep your teeth clean between cleanings:

1. Brushing
Clean your teeth at least twice a day, in the morning after you have had your bath and before going to bed at night, using a soft toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste. Ensure you brush all sides of your teeth; they include the brackets, gums, and posterior teeth. An electric toothbrush is going to be suitable to navigate around the braces.

2. Flossing
Brushing your teeth with braces may be hard, but flossing is very important giving the dental spaces a clean sweep. Thread the floss through the container’s edges and wind it around your index fingers for the space between your teeth and under the wires use the floss that comes with the holders and make a loop of it. Interdental brushes, for instance, the ones designed to clean around the brackets, are also available.

3. Using Mouthwash
An antimicrobial or fluoride mouthwash is useful because it helps bring down bacterial content in your mouth and fight cavities. Mouthwashing helps to wash some parts of the mouth that brushing and flossing may have failed to clean.

Conclusion

Braces are also a good way of fixing improperly aligned teeth, but it is important to keep in mind that special care is needed when cleaning your mouth. Getting your teeth cleaned while wearing braces is important in maintaining the overall health of the teeth and gums, avoiding gum diseases and cavities, and getting the perfect smile after the braces are removed. Your braces won’t stop you from keeping up with your oral hygiene – give Cypress Dental Office TX a call to set up your next appointment!