It’s a relatively natural reaction for a teenager to feel awkward about braces appearing on their smile. If your son or daughter feels this way about their upcoming braces, you might want to consider ceramic braces. These are braces that can be perfectly shaded to match your natural tooth enamel. Because of this, they are hard for the casual observer to even notice the braces.
Just like traditional braces, tooth decay complications or damage to the orthodontic hardware could increase the amount of time needed to achieve your child’s ideal smile. With this in mind, Dr. John R. Schouten offers these basic tips to help them maintain ceramic braces.
They will need to include their braces in their daily oral hygiene routine. This starts with twice-daily brushing with a soft-bristled toothbrush and abrasive toothpaste. They should then floss their teeth each night.
If your son or daughter is having issues cleaning hard-to-reach places, you might want to supply them with interdental brushes and a floss threader loaded with waxed dental floss. This can help them remove food matter and bacterial plaque from those places and from along the gumline.
There are some foods and activities that could prove troublesome for their braces. Eating sticky foods or chewing gum can easily cause damage or even break a component loose. This also goes for crunching down on hard foods and hard candy or nibbling on foreign objects.
It’s also important to keep in mind that the ceramic braces will not be as susceptible to stains as their natural tooth enamel. If their teeth become stained, the tooth enamel might not perfectly match the shade of the ceramic hardware. They can still drink a dark beverage but using a straw will help reduce the impact to the visible teeth.
If you live in the Evanston, Wyoming, area and you’re interested in having ceramic braces improve the alignment of your teeth, you should call (307) 789-8742 to set up a consultation at Uinta Orthodontics.
