Especially for you, I have prepared a short entry about what you should have on hand when you start orthodontic treatment 🙂 This is the basic shopping list – things that are useful during the treatment with fixed orthodontic appliance.

1. Orthodontic wax.

It is very useful, especially at the beginning of treatment! Orthodontic brackets are rough and it takes several days to get used to them. The muscles of the lips and cheeks adhere tightly to our teeth and need time to move away from them and make room for fixed brackets. The wax glued on the bracket makes it more rounded – this way the bracket won’t hurt the mucous membrane of the lip and cheek. Usually, patients only need wax for the first few days. I also have patients who constantly use wax – these are people who speak a lot and smile widely in their work – actors, dancers.

How to use wax?

You should tear off a small piece, warm it in your fingers so that it becomes malleable and stick to the orthodontic bracket. It should be removed before eating, but if you eat wax, nothing will happen – it is a beeswax.

2. Educational toothpaste.

I have already written about educational toothpaste in a previous article. It stains the dental plaque (i.e. debris) located on the teeth and thanks to this you can see where you need to brush your teeth more thoroughly.

Why paste and not coloring liquid or coloring tablets?

My patients who are users of the liquid and tablets complain about the fact that they stain the entire teeth, not just the plaque. This makes it impossible to see where the teeth weren’t properly brushed.

3. Toothpaste containing high level of fluoride.

Such a toothpaste may be useful for people who are unable to refrain from eating sweets while wearing the braces or for people who are suffering from hypersensitive dentin. It is a good idea to use this paste overnight. At night, less saliva is produced in the mouth, which promotes the development of caries if there is a small amount of fluoride in the saliva. In general, brushing your teeth with a paste containing fluoride is good for you (not less than 1450 ppm F-) not only when you are using a fixed appliance.

4. Interdental brushes.

Interdental brushes are very useful when taking care of your  teeth throughout the period of wearing the braces. Depending on their size, they can be used to clean nooks adjacent to orthodontic brackets or interdental spaces. It is always good to have such a brush with you, it is useful when you want to eat something quickly at work / school and easily remove food residue from the space between brackets and orthodontic wire.

5. Toothbrush.

I know, I know … it’s obvious. However, it is worth considering which toothbrush would be best for you. Because we care about washing the space between the gum and the bracket, the bristles of the brush must not be hard so that it does not contribute to the formation of wedge defects  and the appearance of dentine’s hypersensitivity.

My favorite brush is the manual Curaprox Ultra Soft. Marcelina, who is currently undergoing treatment with fixed braces, likes to use Curaprox Ortho. Some of my patients use a small, pocket-sized sonic toothbrush. Such a brush is a good idea – during the day there is little time for brushing your teeth, and the vibrations of the sonic toothbrush make it easier to brush your teeth thoroughly, for example after lunch at work or at school.

Sonic or electric toothbrush?

Hard to say. The brush doesn’t really matter. You can brush your teeth thoroughly with a manual, sonic and electric brush. It all depends on the patient’s manual skills. The choice is yours 🙂

I’ll write another entry about dental floss and irrigator.