Maintaining excellent oral hygiene during orthodontic treatment is essential for keeping your smile healthy and beautiful. Braces create small spaces where food particles and plaque can easily collect—around brackets, wires, and between teeth. To prevent cavities, staining, and bad breath, it’s important to brush and floss thoroughly after every meal and snack. A strong dental hygiene routine before bedtime is especially important to keep both your teeth and braces clean throughout treatment.

Eating with Braces

Patients wearing braces can still enjoy a wide variety of healthy, delicious foods. However, it’s important to limit sweets, soda, and other sugary snacks to prevent tooth decay and discoloration. Sticky or chewy foods—such as caramel, taffy, gummy candy, and dried fruit—should be avoided because they can cling to brackets and wires, making them difficult to clean and potentially damaging to your braces.

To protect your orthodontic appliances, steer clear of hard or crunchy foods like nuts, popcorn, and hard candies, which can bend wires or break brackets. Crunchy fruits and vegetables, such as apples or carrots, should be cut into bite-sized pieces before eating. And remember—never chew ice, as it can easily damage your braces and delay your treatment progress.

Dental Hygiene with Braces

Proper oral hygiene is especially important when wearing braces. Food particles can easily get trapped around brackets and wires, leading to tooth decay, enamel stains, and permanent white spots caused by bacteria buildup. To protect your smile, brush carefully after every meal—making sure to clean all tooth surfaces and along the gumline.

Use orthodontic floss or a floss threader daily to remove plaque and debris from between teeth and wires. Checking your teeth in a mirror afterward can help ensure no areas are missed. Rinsing with an antibacterial mouthwash adds extra protection against cavities and gum inflammation.

When brushing isn’t possible right after eating, rinse your mouth thoroughly with water to remove loose food particles until you can clean your teeth properly.

Sports and Braces: Protecting Your Smile

Staying active is important, and wearing braces shouldn’t stop you from enjoying your favorite sports. However, athletes with braces need to take extra precautions to protect their teeth and orthodontic appliances from injury.

A custom-fit mouthguard is essential for any contact or high-impact activity. It helps prevent damage to your braces, lips, and gums while reducing the risk of broken brackets or wires. Whether you play football, basketball, soccer, or any other sport, wearing a mouthguard is the best way to keep your smile safe throughout treatment.

Additional Resources

MedlinePlus
National Institutes of Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
WebMD