The first week
The braces go on and, for a day or two, nothing much happens. Then the teeth start to ache. That soreness — in the teeth themselves, and sometimes across the whole mouth — is the braces working, and it fades within a few days. Warm salt water helps: a teaspoon of salt in a glass of water, swished round for a minute or two and spat out. An ordinary over-the-counter pain reliever is fine if you need it.
Your lips and cheeks will also need a week or so to get used to having brackets against them. We send you home with wax; press a small piece over whatever is rubbing until the skin toughens up, which it does.
Somewhere in the first couple of weeks you may notice a tooth feels slightly loose. It is. Teeth have to loosen in their sockets to move, and they firm up again once they are where they are going. If one feels very loose, or it worries you, call us — but a little give is expected.
Looking after the braces
Before you leave the chair we go through how to keep the brackets, wires and anything else we have fitted clean and intact. It matters more than it sounds: a broken bracket or a bent wire does not just need fixing, it stops that tooth moving until it is fixed, and enough of them add months to treatment. The same goes for anything you are asked to wear — elastics, a retainer, an appliance. The plan assumes it is being worn.
If something does come loose, emergency care tells you what to do tonight and when to come in. Keep any piece that falls off and bring it with you. A wire that has slipped can usually be nudged back with the eraser end of a pencil and covered with wax until your visit.
Questions between appointments are welcome — call or message rather than wonder.
Everyday life
Sport
Keep playing. Tell us what you play, because a mouthguard that fits over braces protects both your teeth and the hardware, and the boil-and-bite kind from the drugstore does not fit over brackets well. If you take a knock to the mouth, check for loose teeth or damaged braces straight away and call us if you find either; we will tell you whether it can wait or needs a repair visit.
Food
The most-asked question, and the answer is better than people expect: most of what you eat now, you can keep eating. Two habits change. First, cut things up rather than biting into them — apples, carrots, corn off the cob, a crusty roll torn rather than bitten. Second, steer clear of anything that will grab a bracket or bend a wire:
- Sticky — caramels, chewing gum, toffee
- Hard — nuts, hard candy, ice
- Crunchy — popcorn (the kernels), chips
- Chewy — bagels, licorice
Everything soft is yours: pasta and rice, soft breads and pancakes, eggs, fish, meatballs and tender chicken, mashed or steamed vegetables, bananas and applesauce, yoghurt, soft cheese, ice cream without nuts. And the popcorn comes back the day the braces come off.
With brackets on, food has more places to hide, so cleaning matters more than it did — see brushing and flossing.