The Six Month Smile and Your Oral Health

Looking after your teeth and gums whilst wearing this fast acting orthodontic system.

The Six Month Smiles brace is one of the most popular options for straightening teeth which we provide at Arthur House Dental Care. Whilst it works along similar principles to traditional braces, it is both fast acting, focussing only on the visible teeth, and also uses fine tooth coloured materials, making it less visible.

Its popularity, no doubt, lies largely in its speed but also the consistent results it delivers. Six months is not long to have a great smile, particularly when many other orthodontic systems take a year and often more.

Even six months though can create problems for your teeth and gums if special care is not taken. There is an increased risk, as with any braces using the wires and brackets system, for food to become trapped and this can lead to dental decay.

With this in mind, and considering the benefits of the Six Month Smile, we thought that we would take a look at how to care for your teeth whilst wearing them.

Cleaning your teeth

Special care should be taken when cleaning your teeth. Do make sure that your brush is efficient and less than three months old. You should also spend a minimum of two minutes cleaning your teeth and, if there are areas that are particularly difficult to access, perhaps a little more. However, please do not exert too much pressure as this can damage your gums and also the brace mechanism.

You should take care not to neglect the gum line too as plaque may start to form which is a potential precursor to gum disease.

Diet

For the six months or so, it is advisable to avoid sugary foods and drinks when possible. Due to the diluted nature of sugar in drinks especially, it is easy for deposits of sugar to lodge in difficult to reach parts of your teeth and underneath the brackets and wires of the braces.

If you do eat sweets or drink sugary drinks, where possible, try to swill water around your mouth immediately afterwards as this will help to dilute the sugars further and remove some prior to your regular cleaning regime.

Certain foods should be avoided altogether whilst wearing the Six Month Smiles braces, these include hard foods, such as nuts and hard biscuits, which can damage the braces. Also, sticky foods such as toffee should be avoided. Chewing gum is also problematic and is best dispensed with for fairly obvious reasons!

Mouthwash

Although mouthwash is not a substitute for brushing your teeth, it can be used as an extra level of protection and may be useful whilst wearing your braces. At Arthur House Dental Care, we are happy to discuss which mouthwashes will be of most benefit to our patients from Sutton Coldfield and the Birmingham area.

Whilst a little extra care may be called for whilst wearing Six Month Smiles orthodontics, we are sure that, when they are removed, you will be delighted with your smile and that the little extra care was well worth it.