Keep your teeth clean & healthy - they are the last set you will ever have.

When?

1. 1. Full cleaning every morning.
2. 2. Full cleaning every night.
3. 3. Brief cleaning after meals to remove obvious food deposits.

How? - 3 Steps

Avoid the sticky, hard and chewy foods that can break orthodontic appliances. This obviously includes things like chewing gum, toffees, jellies, wine gums, boiled sweets, lollipops etc. Eating these foods can damage your braces and set your treatment back, the result being that you will have to wear your braces longer.

However, it is not just "rubbish" food that will damage your braces - eating hard crusty rolls can damage them, as can eating meat off a bone, or biting through a large crispy carrot, or trying to bite off half an apple in one go....

It is not even jst food that cause problems - chewing rulers, opening plastic bottle tops, biting on pens & pencils....all potentially damaging items.
Basically, what it is important to keep remembering is that you need to treat your braces with care. Gentle biting always, will minimise breakages and speed your treatment.

Hang on to What You’ve Got!

After your days in braces have come to an end, be sure to wear your retainers. There are many different types of retainers but they all serve the same purpose - to keep your teeth straight. It is very important to realise your teeth will continue to move throughout your life. Although the fastest movement in a normal, healthy mouth is when you are young and immediately after your braces have been removed, the movement will continue as long as you live.

So be sensible - wear your retainers according to your Orthodontist’s instructions. Otherwise, your teeth may try to sneak back to their old positions. And, as much as you enjoyed your treatment,  you don’t want to start all over again, now do you?

Immediately after you have stopped  wearing your braces, the time you spend wearing your retainers will allow new, firm bone to form and help stabilise the correct position of your teeth. If you don’t wear your retainer, your gum tissue will act like an elastic band, dragging your teeth back into their old positions very quickly.

The HSE provides free orthodontic treatment for those patients with the most severe orthodontic problems.  The criteria used to decide whether a child qualifies for treatment in the HSE is determined by nationally agreed eligibility guidelines based on an international grading system (IOTN). HSE dental surgeons are trained in the 2007 guidelines for eligibility and so can advise and refer you to the local HSE orthodontic unit for assessment, if your malocclusion is sufficiently severe.  The types of orthodontic problems that qualify under the guidelines include front teeth that are buried and fail to erupt, multiple missing teeth, very prominent front teeth or severe problems with the bite or jaw development.  It is important that the teeth are healthy and the cleaning is very good before any orthodontic treatment is considered, so diet, tooth-brushing and regular visits to the dentist are important.  Treatment waiting times vary from region to region depending on manpower. The most severe cases are prioritised and seen first.  In the majority of the HSE Orthodontic units, the orthodontists working are fully qualified as specialists having undergone an extra 3 years training in orthodontics.  To check the qualifications of your orthodontist, follow the link to the Irish Dental Council Specialist list in Orthodontics.