What to expect

The day your braces are placed, everything just feels awkward, since it’s all new, but discomfort does not start for several hours after your appointment.

As the braces and wires begin to move your teeth, you will begin to feel tightness. The tight feeling continues for a few days sometimes, with the first night being the most uncomfortable, and then each day after it lessens. It is normal for the tight feeling to last sometimes for up to a week. The feeling is just a sore, tender feeling. It is not horrible! Taking Tylenol or Advil, like you would for a muscle cramp or headache, can really alleviate a lot of the soreness.

You will want to eat softer foods the first few days, since your teeth do feel sore. Soups, smoothies, rice, and pastas are a good way to start out. Really crunchy foods, or foods that really need chewing, like steak, should be avoided until your teeth feel more relaxed.

Cheeks and lips get scratched by the braces in the beginning. After awhile, small canker sores may form and get irritated. Using wax to cover the braces where it is most poky will help to prevent the canker sores. Once a canker sore forms, topical ointments will help them to feel better and heal faster. Products like Zilactin or Anbesol can be purchased at the drug store. Warm salt water rinses, will also help to keep the sores clean and heal faster. The scratchy, pokiness of the braces subsides after a few weeks, and most patients are no longer bothered by during the remaining duration of braces.

Once the initial discomfort of braces subsides, and patients have gotten used to the braces, there is usually a short period of tightness after adjustment appointments. Patients often refer to these appointments as “Tightening.” The soreness goes away much faster than it does when the braces are first placed, and it usually only lasts for a day or so.

Patients sometimes notice that their teeth feel loose after they get their braces. Patients often get alarmed, but this is COMPLETELY normal. Patient’s teeth must become mobile in order to be moved to the new, desired positions. Once the teeth are aligned and in their final position, they will stabilize, and no longer feel loose.

Eating Restrictions aka The NO-NO List

It is true that with braces there are some foods that patients must avoid during treatment. Patients must stay away from foods that are really hard or chewy for the entire time treatment order to keep your appliances from breaking. It is important to avoid these foods, so treatment time is not prolonged. Foods that should be avoided are:

• Chewing gum
• Popcorn
• Sticky, chewy candy such as taffy, gummy bears or caramel
• Nuts, including candy with nuts
• Hard breads or rolls and pretzels
• Thick, crunchy chips, like Doritos, Cheetos, Tostitos
• Hard taco shells
• Beef jerky
• Suckers
• Pizza crust
• Raw carrots
• Meat on bones, like ribs need to have the meat cut off the bone
• Apples need to be cut into bite sized pieces
• Limit sodas and sugary, carbonated drinks
• And NEVER CHEW ON ICE, PENS, PENCILS, or FINGERNAILS!!!!!

Oral Hygiene

Oral hygiene is extremely important for any patient undergoing orthodontic treatment. Proper brushing and flossing is vital to keeping your teeth and gums healthy, and is essential in preventing the development of stains, streaks or other evidence of structural damage on the teeth. This damage can be in the form of permanent white spots, brown spots, cavities, and/or gum disease. To prevent this from happening, you must develop a system of cleaning every surface of your teeth

At your initial braces or appliance placement appointment, a staff member will teach you how to brush and floss your teeth and appliances. They will also provide you with several tools to keep your smile healthy, and because your new appliances present new challenges to keeping your teeth clean, you may find our brushing and flossing videos helpful as well.

There are 10 rules of hygiene during orthodontic treatment to ALWAYS remember:

1. Brush after EVERY meal, and AT LEAST 4 times a day
2. Floss EVERYDAY
3. Brush every surface of your tooth
4. Brush every surface of your braces, including in between them
5. Brush your gums, and concentrate on the ones between the teeth and braces
6. Brush in a circular motion
7. Brush your tongue
8. Rinse with Fluoride fortified mouthwashes
9. A Waterpik is a great cleaning tool
10. It only takes 1 day of improper cleaning to cause BIG problems!

Sports and Braces

For some contact sports, patients will be given a mouth guard that allows tooth movement to continue while protecting the skin tissue from getting impinged in the braces from hits to the head.