Life with braces

Start of the treatment

Just after having braces attached, your teeth will be very sensitive when chewing. This should stop after a week when the teeth need get used to the pressure of braces. The teeth don't straighten at that time. They will start straightening a second week, after their sensitivity fades away.

Cleaning teeth with braces

No matter what type of braces we use, intensified oral care is necessary for the whole time of your treatment. The teeth should be moving only in healthy environment. Neither tartar nor gum infection should be present in your mouth, otherwise periodontium may get damaged (receding gums). If fixed braces are used, a lot of new tight areas will appear on your teeth, which need to be cleaned very carefully. After having the braces attached, right technique of brushing is shown to our every patient using a dummy. We don't recommend using mouthwash too often (it can cause staining) and rather pay attention to proper brushing with toothbrush.

Food

Invisalign braces won't limit what you can eat. They are taken off before eating. If you have fixed braces, you need to avoid hard and sticky food. It is necessary to avoid food like fried bread, carrots, nuts, hard apples, caramel, etc.  If any bracket gets loose it always means an immediate (after phoning us) visit of the office. Debonded bracket causes movement of the tooth back to its original position and restraghtening will needlessly make the whole treatment longer. Therefore dont hesitate and solve any problems with braces immediately.

Medication

Some medication slows down the teeth movement. Especially medication used for fever and pain relief: Ibuprofen, Ibalgin, Acylpirin, Aspirin. Anti-inflammatory drugs considerably slow the treatment down as well (eg. for rheumatoid arthritis), eg. Metotrexat. We recommend avoiding these drugs during your treatment or asking your doctor for some substitutive medication. In case of high fever or pain we recommend using Paralen / Paracetamol which doesn't affect straightening teeth.

Sport

Most of the sports can be done without any limits. If you do contact sports, we recommend using a teeth protector which is necessary to reshape regularly (after warming up in warm water) according to a quickly changing position of your teeth.

Music instruments

You should be able to play music instruments without any limitation two weeks after having braces attached. Professional trumpet (and similar instruments) players can be using Invisalign braces or braces behind teeth (lingual braces) which should not influence their performance.

Pronunciation

Lingual braces (attached behind the teeth) can temporarily cause worse pronunciation. Other types of braces don't usually cause any considerable issues with pronunciation.