You’re on your way to a beautiful smile. What better time to break some bad habits than now? If you don’t take the proper care of your teeth while wearing braces, you can damage the braces themselves and cause unnecessary cavities and gum disease. You’re already avoiding certain foods. Now, let’s break some of these bad habits:
- Chewing ice: that crunching can easily break your braces. Plus, it drives your sister crazy.
- Nail biting: almost half of teenagers and a quarter of adults bite their nails. Besides the germs found on your fingers, nail biting also known as onychophagia, causes undue stress on the teeth.
- Gnawing on pens and pencils: these hard objects can loosen or break brackets and wires
- Gum chewing: that myth about gum taking 7 years to dissolve in your stomach is not true, but the one about breaking your braces is absolutely true. Gum can get stuck in your braces and loosen wires or break brackets.
- Drinking sugary drinks: the sugar in sodas, juices and sports drinks can cause tooth decay. Also the carbonation in soda can break down the enamel of your teeth. If you want to drink soda on occasion, use a straw.
Accidents happen. If you need to schedule an orthodontic appointment for one of the above-situations, please contact our office.
