At Meister Orthodontics, our mission is to help patients throughout the greater St. Paul, MN area achieve beautiful, healthy smiles through comprehensive orthodontic treatments like Invisalign and braces. Maintaining proper oral hygiene is critical to the success of your treatment, but while patients
usually feel confident with how to brush, many patients do have one question: which is the best toothbrush to use while I’m wearing braces? We'd like to take a moment to shed some light on the issue.
How to Choose Your Toothbrush While Wearing Braces
While there's plenty to say on this topic, we should start with one disclaimer: ultimately, there is no "right" answer here. You can effectively keep your teeth clean and maintain proper oral hygiene with virtually any toothbrush, so most of it comes down to personal preference. But there are a few caveats to that statement.
For starters, we always recommend that our patients use a soft-bristle toothbrush. That's because firmer bristles can cause damage to the gums over time, eroding them and resulting in gum recession. So no matter what other parameters you go with, always make sure you're using a soft-bristle toothbrush.
Beyond that, it's largely personal preference. Patients with smaller mouths usually prefer small toothbrush heads, while patients with larger mouths like the opposite – although a compact brush head may be easier to maneuver around the brackets of braces. As for the manual vs. electric debate, it's largely up to you. Manual brushes work perfectly fine to clean teeth and braces, so long as you're brushing with proper technique. However, some patients find an electric brush is a little more convenient and requires less effort to fully clean the teeth. This is because an electric brush performs brushing movements on its own and often has a more compact brush head. This lets it clean each tooth individually and also makes it easier to scrub away food and bacteria clinging to the brackets and archwires of braces.
Contact Your Twin Cities Orthodontist
We hope these tips make it easier for you to make your choice the next time you find yourself in the toothbrush aisle, and if you still have questions, we're always here to answer them. Give us a call at 651-699-2013 with any other questions you have regarding oral hygiene while wearing braces or to schedule a check-up appointment at our office. We can't wait to hear from you, and we wish you luck in maintaining a clean, healthy smile during orthodontic treatment!