Choosing The Best Toothpaste For Braces
Participating in braces is an exciting way to improve your smile. The use of orthodontic brackets and wires will help move the teeth into perfect alignment. In order to keep your teeth protected during braces, more brushing and flossing are needed. Using the best toothpaste for braces can help remove food, plaque, and bacteria while strengthening the teeth.
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Importance of Oral Hygiene with Braces
Straightening the teeth with braces will help set up your teeth for a healthy future. Teeth that are in a good alignment will help improve oral hygiene and keep the teeth strong throughout a lifetime. But when you’re in braces treatment, the risk of cavities and gum disease increases.
The brackets and wires used with braces make it harder to clean the teeth. This picture on the right shows where the food, plaque, and bacteria sat around the bracket. Not cleaning the teeth properly weakened the enamel and caused permanent white scarring on the teeth. This is called demineralization.
Best Toothpaste For Braces
Picking the best toothpaste for braces can help keep the teeth strong during braces treatment. With the increased risk of cavities and gum disease, strong oral hygiene practices are very important during braces. Depending on your individual needs, the best toothpaste for braces can vary.
Anti-Cavity Toothpaste
The risk of cavities increases during braces treatment. The brackets and wires on the teeth make it harder to clean and require extra time and patience. Using an anti-cavity toothpaste can help prevent tooth decay by remineralizing the enamel. If you get cavities easily or have had them in the past, using an anti-cavity toothpaste is going to be the best toothpaste for braces for you.
- Your dentist can prescribe you a stronger anti-cavity toothpaste. Consult your doctor today if you think you can benefit from this.
Bleeding Gums Toothpaste
Bacteria in plaque consume food and produce acid. This acid can weaken the enamel and irritate the gums. Bleeding gums is a sign of gingivitis and can lead to gum disease. Braces make you more at risk for gum disease and cause irritated bleeding gums. Choosing an anti-gingivitis toothpaste can help neutralize that aggressive bacteria.
- For more information about bleeding gums and gum disease, check out our Treating Gum Disease article.
Sensitive Toothpaste
Moving the teeth with braces can cause dental sensitivity. This type of dental sensitivity can feel like cold sensitivity, sensitivity when chewing hard foods, or even a continual dull ache. Especially if you’ve had sensitive teeth before braces, this may be your best toothpaste for braces.
- Toothpaste for sensitivity works by blocking the nerve sensors of the tooth while strengthening the outer enamel layer of the tooth. It is common for this toothpaste to take up to two weeks of daily use to be fully effective.
Whitening Toothpaste
Being hard to clean around, braces may increase the amount of stain that clings to the tooth. This may be especially true if your diet contains a lot of staining items like coffee, tea, sodas, and other foods and beverages. Using a whitening toothpaste may help reduce the day-to-day staining before it has a chance to stick to the teeth.
- If your teeth are at risk for cavities or gum disease, we do not recommend whitening products. It is more important to keep the teeth and gums strong and healthy during braces treatment. Your dental hygienist can remove the stain during cleanings and you can whitening after you’re done with braces.
Other Tips for Cleaning Braces
- Additional Dental Tools: There are great dental tools to help clean around the brackets and wire. Interdental floss picks, flossers, and water flossers all work great to clean the teeth with braces. Our Floss Alternatives article has additional information on these tools.
- A Balanced Diet: Packaged, processed foods present in today’s diet are a big culprit for cavities. Avoid gummies, sticky candies, and gummy vitamins that are high in sugar and get stuck in the teeth. Fermentable carbohydrates like crackers and chips also increase the cavity risk. Check out our Dental Nutrition Guide for more tips.
- Routine Dental Visits: Seeing your dental hygienist and dentist at least every 6 months is an important tool to keep the teeth healthy during braces. Dental x-rays will also catch any cavities in between teeth that are beginning to form.
Our Healthy Smile Guide can help you create a supportive oral hygiene routine to prevent cavities and maintain a strong smile.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best toothpaste to use with braces?
There is no one toothpaste that fits all. Everyone has unique needs to support their individual smile. Separating your needs into anti-cavity, anti-gingivitis, sensitivity, or whitening can help narrow in on what is the best toothpaste for braces.
What toothpaste is not good for braces?
The toothpaste we do not recommend for braces is super abrasive toothpaste like charcoal-based ones. The abrasive levels will wear away at enamel layers making you even more at risk for cavities and white demineralizing scars on the teeth.
Do braces turn teeth yellow?
Braces will not change the color of your teeth. Poor brushing and flossing habits will discolor the teeth and make you more at risk for cavities and gum disease.
Take Home Smile Store
Visit our Take Home Smile store for educational brochures and other fun printables to help with oral hygiene. All products can be customized to fit your dental needs.
