Info Tidbit: How to clean your braces properly

Info Tidbit: How to clean your braces properly

Are you wearing braces to get your teeth into the right positions? Did you and your dentist opt for so called removable retainers or for permanent braces (aka brackets)? Depending on which kind of braces you are wearing, you will have to clean them in slightly different ways. What applies in both cases, however, is that your retainer and braces, just like your teeth, always need to be kept clean to prevent any and all kinds of bacterial infections as well as the formation of dental plaques or dental calculus.

Cleaning of removable retainers

A cleaning every day after removal is advisable to prevent an accumulation of bacteria and dental calculus. A toothbrush with a little toothpaste and a little warm water is usually enough. If needed, you can also remove more persistent plaques with a cotton bud and vinegar. If needed, you should also ask your dentist which kind of special brace cleaner he or she recommends to keep your retainer particularly clean. What you should never do is to clean your retainer with boiling water and bleach to avoid deformations and other damage.

Cleaning of permanent braces 

With permanent braces, you have to clean them particularly well given that food particles can very easily lodge themselves between teeth and brackets which makes them very difficult to remove. Prior to an actual cleaning of this type of braces, you have to therefore first very carefully brush your teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste. Then you need to take a piece of dental floss and move it up and down in between each tooth to carefully clean out the space in between them via up and down movements. Important in this case is to reach all the way down to the gum line. Once you have successfully cleaned all your teeth via this method, your jaws will be ready for another day.