While wearing braces, you have to make regular visits to the orthodontist. These visits can sometimes make people wonder if they can skip their regular dentist appointments and cleanings.
If you’ve been wondering if you should stick to your dental cleaning schedule or not, Bridge Creek Dental is here to tell you why you still need to come into our clinic while wearing braces.
1. Dental Cleanings Are Even More Necessary
While wearing braces, preventative dental care is even more important. With more areas to clean around, it is easier for dental plaque to be missed and build up, creating tartar and calcium deposits on your teeth. This build-up is particularly noticeable around the brackets of your braces.
By sticking to your six-month dental cleaning appointments, you can protect your teeth while your braces straighten them. Our dental clinic has specialized tools to clean around your wires and brackets so that you can enjoy that fresh mouth feeling while your braces stay intact.
2. Potential Cavity Development While Wearing Braces
Along with dental plaque, there are other things that can threaten your teeth while wearing braces, namely, cavities. In fact, developing even one cavity can set back your braces treatment timeline by a month or more.
So, why would a cavity slow down your teeth being straightened? Well, the cavity needs to be addressed before any tightening of the bands on your brackets. Otherwise, the tightened bands can put undue stress on the compromised tooth and may lead to it cracking or breaking altogether.
3. Prevent Pairing Unhealthy Gums With Straight Teeth
You can be at a higher risk of developing gum disease when wearing braces. Since you likely don’t want to pair beautifully straight teeth with inflamed gums, it is important to keep seeing your regular dentist while undergoing alignment treatment.
It doesn’t have to be extraordinary visits to our dental clinic either. During your regularly-scheduled dental cleanings, our dentists will check to see if you are experiencing gingivitis (early-stage gum disease) or one of the more severe forms of periodontitis. If signs are detected, it is important to intervene quickly to prevent further inflammation and potential tooth loss.
4. Avoid Dental Decalcification
Another dental issue that can be caught by regular cleanings is dental decalcification. If one of your teeth is losing calcium, white, chalky spots will appear. This loss of calcium weakens the tooth, making it more prone to cracking or fracturing, which is definitely not something you want when wearing braces.
Should our staff see the signs of dental decalcification, they will be able to provide treatment options, advice, and supplies that you can use at home to strengthen your teeth.
5. Get A Fluoride Treatment To Help Strengthen Teeth
One such option to strengthen decalcified teeth is a fluoride treatment. Fluoride is a naturally-occurring mineral, and it has been documented to help remineralize teeth that have become decalcified.
At our dental clinic, our dentists can provide a clinical-strength fluoride treatment, and send you home with fluoride toothpaste that contains a higher concentration of fluoride than what is sold in store-bought fluoride toothpastes.
Pair Visits To Our Dentists With Regular Oral Hygiene
Along with sticking to your dentist and orthodontist appointments, your daily oral hygiene will make a huge impact on the health of your teeth as you wear your braces. Along with good braces practices—i.e., no sticky foods, drink sugary liquids with straw away from braces, etc.—be sure to brush at least twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. You should also floss once a day, though a floss threader may help you maneuver around your braces.
So, if you need to schedule your next dental cleaning, please contact us today. When setting up your appointment, please specify that you are wearing braces so that our staff can get the right tools ready for your appointment. We look forward to helping you have a healthy smile!