Having braces can present challenges for patients of all ages, but when it comes to kids, they often require special attention to ensure success! Our Hunter Family Orthodontics team will share some valuable tips on how you can foster good dental habits in your kids with braces.
The Best Practices for Braces
For starters, we want to discuss some of the best practices that you can adopt as a parent to support your child during their orthodontic treatment. Kids will look up to the adults in their lives to set good examples for them, including Dr. Hunter and our team.
- Maintain a Good Attitude: When you have a positive attitude about treatment, it sets a solid foundation for exceptional results. You can do this by reminding your child of the end goal, and sharing success stories with them along the way.
- Education is Everything: Remind your kids of the best ways to care for and maintain their braces. This can revolve around great oral hygiene—consistently and correctly brushing, flossing, and rinsing every single day. You can also remind them of some of the consequences of slacking on their hygiene, such as white spots, cavities, or gum disease.
- Encourage Healthy Eating Habits: Diet plays a star role in braces treatment. Kids can often have diets that include an excessive amount of sugar in juices, sodas, and sweet treats. Moderating these, as well as hard and crunchy foods that can damage braces, can be very helpful for their treatment outcome. Instead, offer soft foods like soups, pasta, yogurt, and smoothies, which are all easy on braces and teeth, especially if they’re a bit sore after Dr. Hunter tightens them in the office.
- Help Manage Discomfort: Using over-the-counter pain medications like ibuprofen can be very helpful in managing soreness, as well as ice packs and cold foods. Managing discomfort makes taking care of braces much easier for kids.
- Stay on Top of Appointments: This applies to both visits with Hunter Family Orthodontics as well as your family dentist. Skipping appointments can have a number of consequences, such as our team being unable to address damage to braces in a timely manner. We want children to be able to stay on track as easily as possible, and this means promptly taking care of repairs.
- Clean, Clean, Clean: The basis of good oral hygiene is cleaning teeth effectively. Your child might have to adjust to the newness of braces when it comes to cleaning around them well, but they will get used to it in no time. Cheer them on and monitor their cleaning habits if you know they struggle with this point of compliance.
More Tips and Tricks
In addition to following these steps, here’s a list of a few other tools that can vastly improve a child’s experience with braces. Some of these might even come as a surprise!
- Interdental Brushes: Kids might find it hard to use a traditional toothbrush to clean their braces. These tiny brushes are able to reach places a larger one might miss, and better help remove food particles and plaque.
- Electric Toothbrush with an Orthodontic Head: An electric toothbrush can help expedite the process of brushing while still being thorough. Orthodontic heads can better navigate wires and brackets.
- Braces-Friendly Toothpaste: A good quality toothpaste will contain fluoride, help strengthen enamel, and combat cavities. Be sure that your kids are using this when brushing their teeth.
- Orthodontic Wax: This can be used to smooth over sharp brackets that may poke the gums or insides of the mouth. It can also cover sharp wires that may poke you. If any parts of your braces are broken be sure to schedule an appointment to visit us, so we can help.
- Floss Threaders or Water Flossers: A floss threader can fit underneath the wires of braces to help clean them completely. A water flosser is able to apply targeted bursts of water to flush out other areas of the mouth. Both are popular alternatives to regular dental floss for kids with braces.
- An Orthodontic Travel Kit: A lot of these supplies can be taken on the go in a small pouch, which kids can use at school or when visiting friends to clean their braces. Make this a special thing for kids by personalizing or decorating it, so that they’re more inclined to keep it with them.
Dr. Hunter is Here to Help!
So yes, you can get your child in the habit of taking care of their smile. If you want more tips and information, be sure to reach out to our team, so we can help you foster good dental habits in your kids with braces. Remember that Hunter Family Orthodontics is on your team to help you and your child cross the finish line. We can’t wait to see you in our Woodlands office!