What Kind of Toothbrush Should I Use With Braces?
Once your West Seattle orthodontist puts braces on your teeth, you’ll be well on your way toward the straight and healthy smile you deserve! While it does take a little time to adjust to having braces, before long, you’ll be completely used to wearing those appliances on your teeth.
Importance of Oral Hygiene
Oral hygiene is super important when you’re wearing braces because there are many tight spaces around your bands, brackets, and wires that can trap food and plaque. This means you’ll need to arm yourself with the best teeth cleaning tools you can find. The most important item to have in your arsenal of plaque-fighting tools is a good quality toothbrush. If you’re wondering what type of toothbrush is best to use with braces, we’ve put together the following information that should help!
Electric or Manual: It’s Up to You
You can use either a regular manual toothbrush or an electric toothbrush to clean your teeth and braces, it’s up to you! If you decide to go the electric route, make sure to choose a brush head with soft bristles. When brushing your teeth, use a moderate setting and don’t allow the back of the brush to vibrate against your braces, to prevent damaging your appliances. If you’re going to use a regular brush it’s best to use a brush that has bi-level bristles that will easily get into all those small spaces around your braces.
A Proxabrush Can Reach Hard-to-Reach Areas
To make sure that you get into all those hard-to-reach areas like around the bands on your back teeth and up and under the archwire, pick up a proxabrush at your local pharmacy. This is a small spiral-shaped brush that’s sometimes called an ‘interproximal brush’ that does an excellent job of removing bits of food and plaque from tight spaces.
In a nutshell, it’s important to choose a soft-bristled toothbrush that’s easy to hold and manipulate. When shopping for a toothbrush, choose one that carries the ADA seal of approval to ensure it’s deemed safe and effective to use. If you have any questions or need help picking out a toothbrush, contact us and we’ll help!
