These days, teeth straightening comes with more options than ever and for every bank account. Choosing which is right for you depends on many factors, such as the severity of your case and how much bite correction is needed, your age and lifestyle. While traditional braces, which can be either metal or ceramic, in Lafayette are best for more significant situations and bite issues, other choices are growing in popularity. Invisalign aligners may be more ideal for someone who has a top priority of esthetics during treatment. However, there are some rules that must be followed in order to get your desired look.
Learning How to Care for Braces
While you get adjusted to your new look, maintenance is also essential. Dr. John Oubre and Dr. Matthew Oubre always stress the importance of regular care in order to keep up with progress and overall dental health. Failure to follow directions often results in progress being delayed and can even lead to cavities or “white spots” on a patient’s teeth.. This is especially important when wearing metal braces or ceramic braces in Lafayette, which have their own maintenance requirements.
Cleaning Braces Properly
All patients wearing traditional braces, aligners, and ceramic braces must brush and floss their teeth at least twice a day. Although your home oral hygiene routine may be more time consuming and tedious with braces on, it also becomes crucial to keeping your dental health at the top of our priority list. When you start orthodontic treatment with Oubre Orthodontics, our skilled clinical assistants will review specific brushing techniques with you to help educate you on proper brushing techniques and supply you with tools to help make the process easier. One great tool that we often recommend is use of a Waterpik which uses water and air pressure to power wash around the teeth and clean some of those hard to reach places.
Avoiding Certain Food and Drinks
Everyone is aware that while being treated with braces there are certain foods that you are supposed to avoid. The reason orthodontic patients are asked to avoid specific foods is in an effort to reduce brackets coming loose and therefore slowing down the progress of your orthodontic case. According to Dr. Matthew Oubre, not eating these foods (or changing how you eat certain foods) while you wear braces not only makes care easier but ensures comfortable wear. These include, but aren’t limited to -
- Candy, especially hard or chewy types like caramel or gummies
- Foods that stain, like berries
- Popcorn is ideally avoided; however if eaten, it should be one kernel at a time
- When eating foods like apples, it’s less forceful on your braces if you cut the apple into slices rather than biting straight into it
It also helps to avoid tobacco products when wearing ceramic braces. While the brackets themselves aren’t likely to stain, the elastic that holds everything together can become discolored easily.
Call us today to learn more about the best teeth straightening options that suit you or a family member.