How to Maintain Your Oral Health With Braces

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How to Maintain Your Oral Health With Braces
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• Braces are essential for aligning your teeth
  and giving you that winning smile but wearing
  them also means you have to take extra dental
  care that will protect your teeth from staining,
  gum diseases as well as tooth decay. Precautions
  are not just necessary to protect your teeth you
  also need to avoid damaging your braces as
  replacements can be fairly costly. 

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• There are some simple actions that you can do
  on a daily basis when wearing braces such as
  avoiding crunchy or hard foods, avoiding chewing
  gum and not pushing your tongue against your
  inner teeth. However, there is also a more
  comprehensive oral health routine that you need
  to make a habit of when wearing braces.

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Eat the Right Foods

• Avoid eating too much of those foods that have
  a high acid content as these have a corrosive
  effect on your enamel. Replace them with the
  foods with low acid levels. Some of high acid
  level foods include soft drinks, citrus, tomatoes
  and pineapples among others. Eat more low acid
  foods such as mangoes, carrots, bananas, eggs and
  meat.

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• When it comes to food choices when wearing
  braces, you also need to look at the hardness
  factor. The hard foods such as nuts are likely to
  damage your braces system. In case the brace
  apparatus has been damaged when chewing, contact
  your orthodontist as soon as possible. Another
  category of foods that you should avoid when
  wearing braces are the sticky ones such as gums.

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Have a good oral care routine

• There are extra oral care routines that you
  need to incorporate. If you are not already
  practicing them, when wearing braces flossing and
  brushing your teeth on a regular basis is
  important. Here are some useful oral care tips to
  keep in mind

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• Before you begin brushing your teeth, get rid of
  the elastics
• The braces should be brushed gently. If there are
  gaps or nooks in the braces, try to get the
  bristles of the toothbrush into these. This is
  why you must also remember to replace your
  toothbrush more often.
• After brushing your teeth, inspect your braces to
  ensure there are no remnants of food still stuck
  in them.

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• For more effective brushing, use an electric
  toothbrush.
• Floss your teeth more often

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Put in place

• To minimise the rate of decay when you are
  wearing braces, it is advisable to use toothpaste
  that has fluoride, which is really most of the
  toothpaste brands in the market today. The tap
  water that you drink should also contain
  fluoride. Another important oral health product
  that you should consider is mouthwash that is
  fluoride-rich.

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Use an interdental toothbrush

• This works best when you have spaces between
  your teeth. They will go in between the spaces to
  get rid of food particles and stains on your
  teeth. It is generally more effective than
  flossing your teeth.
• Practice these simple routines and keep your
  oral health in the best shape possible.

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