BRUSHING AND FLOSSING
An effective oral hygiene routine starts with a few simple steps:
A Proper Brushing Technique for your Teeth
A proper brushing technique is the first step to maintaining healthy teeth and gums. Plus, it helps minimize the risk of tooth decay and gum disease, the major causes of tooth loss.
Before You Begin
While there are several tooth brushing techniques with a manual toothbrush, always ask your dental professional for their recommendation and be sure to follow their instructions. To start, use fluoride toothpaste with a soft-bristle toothbrush, and don't forget to replace it every three months.
Two Minutes, Twice a Day
To brush your teeth correctly, spend at least two minutes using a recommended brushing technique, which includes 30 seconds brushing each section of your mouth (upper right, upper left, lower right and lower left), both morning and night. Since most manual toothbrushes don't have built-in two-minute timers, you may want to have a clock handy so you can be sure you're brushing long enough.
Positioning the Toothbrush
How you hold the toothbrush depends on which part of the tooth you're brushing.
Step 1: Start with outer and inner surfaces, and brush at a 45-degree angle in short, half-tooth-wide strokes against the gum line. Make sure you reach your back teeth.
Step 2: Move on to chewing surfaces. Hold the brush flat and brush back and forth along these surfaces.
Step 3: Once you get to the inside surfaces of your front teeth, tilt the brush vertically and use gentle up-and-down strokes with the tip of brush.
Step 4: Be sure to brush gently along the gum line.
Step 5: Brush your tongue in a back-to-front sweeping motion to remove food particles and help remove odor-causing bacteria to freshen your breath.
Now that you've learned proper brushing technique, a little discipline in practicing it every day will help make it feel like second nature. It's one of the easiest things you can do to maintain the health of your teeth and gums.
Proper Flossing Technique
Use about 18 inches of floss, so you have a clean piece of floss to use on each tooth in the cleaning process.
Curve the floss into a C-shape as you slide it up and down along the side of each tooth.
Don’t forget to floss the back sides of your back teeth on both the left and right of the upper and lower teeth.
Proper brushing and flossing technique as part of your daily oral care routine are the most important components in the fight to keep your teeth plaque free – and protecting your teeth and gums for a lifetime.
All About Invisalign Care
7 Tips on How to Clean Invisalign Aligners
1. Remove Your Trays Before Eating
First, it’s important to remove your trays before you eat each time. Otherwise, the food and beverages you consume can damage and stain your aligners.
Food particles get stuck in your trays as often as they get stuck in your teeth. If these particles cling to your aligners, they’ll transfer to your teeth and gums as well. Over time, these particles provide the bacteria that create plaque.
Plaque is a sticky film that clings to your enamel. Brushing your teeth and cleaning your enamel can help you remove this plaque. When left unattended, however, plaque hardens and becomes tartar.
You can’t remove tartar on your own. Instead, you’ll need a professional’s help.
If you don’t remove tartar from your teeth, you might develop gingivitis. This gum disease can worsen with time and become periodontal disease.
Instead of dealing with the hassle of plaque and tartar, make sure to remove your Invisalign trays before eating or drinking.
Then, you’ll need to clean your trays and teeth before placing your aligners back in your mouth.
2. Clean Your Trays When You Remove Them
Each time you remove your trays, you’ll need to clean them thoroughly. Rinsing and soaking them in water won’t prevent bacteria from building up. Instead, consider using a clear soap, which won’t tint your aligner.
There are also denture cleaners and Invisalign cleaning crystals available.
These options can help prevent foul-smelling bacteria from clinging to your aligners.
When cleaning your trays, don’t use hot water to disinfect them. Your aligners are made of a thermoplastic material that can cause them to bend in hot water. Cold water, meanwhile, can cause your aligners to contract.
Instead, use room-temperature water.
3. Keep Your Trays in a Case
When you’re not wearing your aligners, make sure to place them in a case instead of on a napkin. Otherwise, you might accidentally throw your aligners away.
A case will protect your trays from bacteria as well as possible damage.
4. Floss and Brush
Remember, food particles can get stuck between your teeth. Wearing your trays without brushing your teeth can prevent your saliva from washing these particles away. This can cause bacteria and plaque to build up, leading to oral diseases.
When wearing Invisalign trays, it’s important to maintain good oral hygiene. Make sure to brush and floss after meals, and before you put your trays back on. That way, you can keep your teeth clean and your aligners clear.
5. Stick to a Schedule
Make it a habit! Remember to clean your aligners as a part of your routine. Missing a cleaning can give bacteria the chance to build up against your teeth.
6. Avoid Basic Mistakes
Here are a few basic mistakes to avoid as you learn how to clean Invisalign trays.
Don’t:
Use cleaning solutions with harsh ingredients
Soak your aligner in mouthwash (which could discolor it)
Rinse your aligner in hot or cold water
Leave your aligner sitting out
These tips can help you maintain the quality of your aligner.
7. Soak It
Soaking your aligner can disinfect it from:
E. Coli
Staph
Candida
Strep
Soaking it can also prevent tough stains, debris, plaque, and odor. After soaking your aligner in a solution, make sure to rinse it under room temperature water.
Now that you know all about Invisalign care, you can use these tips on how to clean Invisalign aligners without stress!
Keep those aligners—and teeth—clean with these tips.
Nightguards
Nightguards and bite splints can make a world of difference for your bruxing and grinding patients, alleviating pain and preventing further destruction of existing healthy dentition. The CLEARsplint is a nightguard fabricated from a modified composite material that is made to your prescribed bite plane.
This optically clear splint is nearly invisible when worn and amine-free to resist yellowing. When placed in warm water before inserting in the mouth, it will self-adjust for the closest fit and increased patient comfort. Because it does not contain the methyl methacrylate found in other acrylic splints, the possibility for allergic reactions is reduced. Chairside repairs can easily be made with cold-cure acrylics.