Between your teeth: Some of you may be wondering "how it is possible to floss with all this metal in my mouth?" One way is to take your floss (make sure it is the wax kind) and thread it under your wire and between your brackets. Another way is to buy those stiff little flossers. You thread the floss through the loop and then stick the flosser end under your wire and pull it out, thus easily getting your floss under your wire/between your bracket.
Brackets: Another place food can sit and rot in your mouth is in your bracket. And we mean in the actual bracket that is glued to your teeth. The best way to get this out is to brush this area very thoroughly. Sometimes your orthodontist will give you a little pipecleaner-like tool and you can use that to dislodge food from your brackets.
Gums: A common problem in people with braces is infected gums. When you have infected gums, they get all red and puffy and hurt to the touch. Not fun! To avoid this problem, be sure to brush above your brackets and floss regularly. Another reason you don’t want this is that when you get your braces off and if you get a plastic retainer, the retainer won’t fit properly when your gum line gets healthy again.
Head Gear: As with all things sitting in your mouth for long periods of time, your head gear will need to be cleaned. To clean the metal mouth piece, brush it with your toothbrush and toothpaste. To get a deep clean you can soak it in your mouthwash and then brush it same as before. As for the cloth part, if it gets too gross for you to wear, you can wash it by hand using regular hand-washing soap. We didn't have this problem but we only wore/wear ours for 12 hours.
Bands: Don’t bother trying to clean these. After wearing them once, just throw them away and replace it with a fresh set!
Cleaning is very important as we have stated in previous posts (such as Health in Hygiene). Hopefully these tips will make it easier for you to manage this task.
-Amanda and Erik
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