Caring For Your Orthodontic Appliances

To successfully complete your treatment plan, you must work together with your orthodontist.

That means consistently wearing your rubber bands, headgear, or other appliances as prescribed, and taking good care of them, too. If your appliances are damaged they'll need to be replaced or repaired, and this may extend the duration of your treatment. 

Caring for Your Orthodontic Appliances

Cleaning Your Removable Appliance

As a part of your regular brushing and flossing routine, you should brush your orthodontic appliance every day.

Food particles and plaque can accumulate on your appliance just like they can on your teeth, so it's important to regularly soak the appliance.

Dissolve a Polident or Efferdent denture-cleaning tablet in a glass of room temperature water, and soak your appliance in the solution once a day. This will make your appliance taste better, and it helps prevent plaque and bacteria from accumulating.

Remember, though: soaking your appliance is not a replacement for brushing it, but a supplement.

Cleaning Your Fixed Appliance

Cleaning your teeth with a fixed orthodontic appliance in place can be a bit tricky. Be sure to take special care with your oral hygiene routine in order to reduce the chance of developing tooth decay or gum disease.

Elastics Care

• Carry some rubber bands with you at all times, so you can replace any that break.
• If you forget to wear your rubber bands, don’t double up the next day – just continue with your regular instructions.
• When your rubber bands lose their elasticity, they do not provide effective pressure to your teeth and jaws.
• Change your elastics after every meal, even if they're not broken.
• If your rubber bands break often or if the hook for your rubber bands breaks off, call our office immediately.

Don't let soreness from your rubber bands discourage you.

It will go away, just like the soreness from new wires goes away. Removing your elastics will just make you sore for longer, and it can damage your teeth.