Tools, Daily Habits, and Food Choices That Protect Your Smile
Traditional metal braces are a reliable way to achieve a straighter, healthier smile, but they require a bit of extra care. Because orthodontic treatment affects your overall facial harmony and airway health, maintaining your appliances is key to a successful long-term outcome.
Whether you have food stuck in your braces after dinner with a friend or you’re dealing with a poking wire while at the office, you need to be prepared to handle a variety of situations on the go.
Maintaining your routine while away from home ensures that your treatment stays on track and your appliances continue to function as intended.
Managing Braces at Work and On the Go
If you’ve turned to traditional braces to optimize your facial harmony, you can rest assured knowing you’ve made a great decision! While you’ll have them in for a year or two, you will achieve a healthy, functional result that’ll improve your oral health and confidence by the end.
Taking care of your braces at home may be easier, as you have everything you need in one place. However, following the same care at work might be a different story.
Make a Braces Care Kit
Even though you are going through your workday, you’ll need to clean your braces. Food can get trapped in them, so having a travel-sized kit of all your oral health essentials can make maintenance more convenient.
A foldable toothbrush, mouthwash, dental wax, floss, floss threaders, and lip balm are good things to keep handy! If you have just gotten your braces on or new wires placed, packing in some pain relievers might be helpful as well.
Why a Braces Survival Kit Matters
Caring for your teeth and equipment when you wear braces is no big deal when you’re at home. But if you’re like most people, leaving the house is a daily occurrence, especially if you go to school or work. So, how do you keep your mouth looking and feeling clean and healthy while you’re away? The answer is your very own portable braces survival kit.
Here are 10 essential tools that need to be in your braces survival kit.
- Your Orthodontist’s Contact Information
Perhaps one of the most important items in your braces survival kit is your orthodontist’s contact information. Whether on a piece of paper in your kit or saved in your phone’s contacts, it’s essential that you have their number on hand so you can reach them in an emergency.
- Toothbrush
A quick brush after every meal will clean away bits of food stuck in your braces and lower your risk of bad breath, gum disease, and cavities.
- Mouthwash
Not only will a quick rinse with mouthwash clear away food particles and kill bacteria, but it will help freshen your breath as well!
- Floss
Waxed floss, a floss threader, interdental brush, or orthodontic flosser are all excellent for removing debris that can’t be dislodged by your toothbrush.
- Lip Balm
Chapped or dried out lips are common with braces. To ease discomfort and encourage healing, keep lip balm in your kit. Ideally, it should have an SPF of 15 or higher and contain ingredients like shea butter or beeswax.
- Dental Wax
Dental or orthodontic wax is a tried-and-true way to cover sharp spots in your smile and help ease irritation in the soft tissues.
- Over-the-Counter (OTC) Pain Relievers
Any means of aligning teeth and improving bite function is bound to cause some dental discomfort. It’s a good idea to keep OTC pain relievers like Ibuprofen or Tylenol on hand to ease soreness if needed.
- Gauze
Keep some clean gauze in your kit just in case you need to treat a cut or sore caused by your braces. Hopefully you won’t encounter this situation, but it’s always best to be prepared.
- Compact Mirror
A compact mirror will let you investigate sore spots, stuck debris, or areas that just don’t feel right to see what’s going on.
- Additional Essentials to Keep Handy
- Toothpaste
- Interdental brushes
- Rubber bands / attachment tool (if applicable)
Remember, wearing braces requires a bit more attention to your oral hygiene than usual, and being prepared with these supplies when you’re away from home can help keep your teeth, gums, and orthodontic equipment clean and in good condition no matter where life takes you!
Carry a Water Bottle
If you’re like many adults, then a good cup of joe may call your name every morning. Whether your daily dose of caffeine comes from coffee or another drink, it can dry out your mouth. Without saliva to wash away any decay-causing bacteria, you’re at a higher risk of cavities forming between your teeth and braces.
Drinking water throughout the day offers a wide variety of benefits, several of which pertain to your oral health. Sipping water will lower your risk of cavities and clear away harmful particles hiding in your braces, all while keeping you hydrated!
Pack Your Own Lunch
With braces, you’ll want to avoid any foods that are sticky, hard, or crunchy. Since they are tougher to chew through, they can easily break brackets or bend wires. A reliable way to avoid these foods is to bring lunch from home. You’ll have more control over what you eat, as you can pack soft, nutritious foods and cut anything into smaller pieces if needed.
Keep Objects Out of Your Mouth
One habit you’ll have to break with braces is chewing on hard objects! Whether it’s because you’re dealing with work stress or fidgeting, biting your pens or fingernails can break a bracket or wire. Not only that, but it can also even damage your teeth.
Smile Proudly
You are never too old to improve your dental function and facial proportions. In fact, one out of five orthodontic patients are over the age of 18. Even though you may look different for some months, you can smile proudly knowing that you are improving your oral health.
Though you’ll have to make some changes with how you go through your workday with braces, it’ll quickly become a routine. By the end, you’ll have a new smile that you may want to flash, so there is no shame in showing off the progress!
Foods to Avoid With Braces
To get the most out of your prescribed treatment plan, you’ll have to steer clear of bad oral habits, keep up with your hygiene, and avoid certain foods. Summer can be the most tempting time to open up a bag of chips and munch on a plateful of raw veggies at your family barbeque. Although it can be difficult, certain classic seasonal snacks can impact your braces and affect your treatment.
- Chips
Hard and crunchy foods like chips and pretzels can damage your wire and break your brackets. In the early stages of your treatment, your wires are more flexible, meaning eating some of your favorite summer snacks like chips and salsa could cause your light wires to bend or even break.
- Corn on the Cob
While corn is completely fine to eat, you’ll have to remove it from the cob first. Biting into a hard cob can cause your braces to loosen or dislodge your brackets. This can impact your treatment time and require you to make a speedy visit to your orthodontist.
- Raw Vegetables
Hard and crunchy snacks like raw vegetables such as carrots and celery can cause one of your brackets to pop off or a wire to bend. Even though munching on a raw vegetable platter sounds like the perfect healthy family reunion snack with great nutritional value, it’s challenging for your braces to power through. Instead, try cooking the carrots to soften them or consume all of your favorite hard veggies and fruits by putting them into a juicer!
- Thick-Cut Meats
When your family is having a barbeque or picnic with a giant array of all of your favorite meat, make sure to cut them up into small bite-size pieces. Remember to remove any fat or bones that could cause damage to your brackets and wires.
Also, avoid foods like chicken wings and drumsticks because they can cause your brackets to become unbonded from your teeth. Instead, stick to slow-roasted and tender meats and other soft side-dishes like mashed potatoes and pasta salad.
- Sweets
Sugary snacks and candy can not only impact your oral health and leave your teeth susceptible to cavities and dental decay, but they can also affect your braces. Try avoiding pop at your summer family events and go for water instead.
Foods that are doughy and soft like donuts, pastries, and cakes, contain sugar and flour that attach to your teeth, wires, and brackets. Cleaning between your braces is hard enough, so why make it more difficult?
Steering clear of tempting summer treats is hard, but it’s well worth it. Avoid an emergency visit with your orthodontist by thinking about how consuming a certain food will affect your braces treatment. Instead, stick to the snacks you know you can have like soft dairy, grains, and side dishes.
Braces-Friendly Foods to Eat
You’ve finally taken the plunge and decided to straighten your smile with braces. However, your jaw is now sore and you’re having trouble remembering what you can and can’t eat. Not to worry! We’ve created this guide with 6 braces-friendly foods that are healthy for your mouth and your body.
- Greek Yogurt
Yogurt is great for both your body and your teeth, thanks to its high protein and calcium content. Protein keeps you full for a long time, so it cuts back on the need for extra snacking. Calcium strengthens your teeth and bones. It also may come with good bacteria to balance out the bad bacteria in your mouth that can cause tooth decay. Make sure to stick to plain Greek yogurt with no added sugar to fully reap its benefits.
- Smoothies
In addition to being fun to make, smoothies are great for your oral health. There are so many fruits, veggies, and liquids you can mix in that you may never have to have the same smoothie twice. They’re perfect for the days after you get your braces tightened. The coldness cuts down on swelling and pain, and they’re easy to take to school or work.
- Eggs
People talk about how eggs are a great source of protein, but they’re also jam-packed with phosphorus. When you consume phosphorous along with vitamin D and calcium, it supports strong and healthy teeth and fights cavities. Whether you eat them scrambled, poached, or boiled, eggs remain soft enough for sore mouths.
- Cooked Fruits and Veggies
If you have braces, you should stay away from raw produce, as the crunch could break or dislodge a bracket. Cooked fruits and veggies, however, are wonderful for the health of your mouth and body. Most produce contains plenty of antioxidants that help protect your gums and teeth from infection. To get the most out of your diet, try to put a rainbow of fruits and veggies on your plate.
- Fish
Studies have shown that consuming omega-3 fatty acids in fish lowers your risk of gum disease. Also, fatty fish like salmon are excellent sources of vitamin D, which helps your body use calcium effectively to make your teeth and bones stronger. Even if your mouth is sore, you should have no trouble chewing fish like you would other meats.
- Chicken Noodle Soup
Homemade soup is the perfect food for a sore mouth due to new braces. Vitamins and protein in chicken noodle soup can speed up your natural healing process. The slurping motion also gives your jaw a little break from chewing.
Adjusting to life with braces from your orthodontist can take a while. Stick to these foods to help make that process easier.
Caring for Your Braces Beyond the Orthodontist’s Office
Congratulations on your new braces! Soon, you’ll have a healthy, beautiful smile to showcase for all your efforts. However, until your treatment is complete, you’ll still need to take extra care of your teeth and gums to ensure that your functional results turn out as expected, even while you’re away from home. Thus, your orthodontist recommends packing a braces survival kit to take with you on the go.
