Clean the teeth

People wearing orthodontic appliances should clean the appliances every day as dental plaque also adheres to the appliances.

Cleaning removable orthodontic appliances

The user must take it out and clean it thoroughly to remove the dental plaque in the morning and before bed at night.

Animation of how to clean a removable orthodontic appliance with toothbrush on top of a basin of water.

Cleaning removable orthodontic appliances

Take out the removable orthodontic appliance, use a toothbrush and some detergent to clean every surface of the appliance. After cleaning, the appliance can be put into your mouth again.
Photograph of a removable orthodontic appliance being immersed in a cup of water.

Points to note

When the orthodontic appliance is not worn, it should be cleaned and immersed in a cup of water.

Cleaning fixed orthodontic appliances

It is rather difficult to clean the teeth with the fixed orthodontic appliance in place. People wearing fixed orthodontic appliances should pay special attention to their oral hygiene to reduce the chance of developing tooth decay or gum disease. You should clean your teeth and the appliance every day in the morning and before bed at night as well as after each meal.

Cleaning fixed orthodontic appliances

Animation showing the use of toothbrush to clean the lower teeth with fixed orthodontic appliance.
  1. Firstly, brush the area between the orthodontic appliance and gingivae (gums). Then, brush the area between the appliance and the crown of the teeth.
Animation showing the use of interdental brush to brush the area between the orthodontic appliance and lower teeth in up and down motion.
  1. Finally, insert an interdental brush into the area between the tooth and the appliance to clean.

Flossing is difficult for people wearing fixed orthodontic appliance. Hence, superfloss can be used to facilitate the removal of dental plaque in the adjacent tooth surfaces.

Photograph showing a piece of superfloss with three different component.Superfloss
Animation of pushing the stiffened end of the floss through the space between the teeth and the orthodontic appliance.
  1. Push the stiffened end through the space between the teeth and the orthodontic appliance.
Photograph of showing the wrapping of the floss ends around middle fingers, holding it tightly between thumbs and forefingers of both hands.
  1. Then wrap the floss ends around middle fingers, hold it tightly between the thumbs and forefingers of both hands, leaving about 2 cm of floss in between.
Animation showing the floss being gently pulled into the interdental space by a sawing motion.
  1. Gently pull the floss into the interdental space by using a sawing motion.
Animation continued from the previous motion showing the cleaning of the adjacent surface of the tooth with superfloss.
  1. Wrap the floss around one tooth in a "C" shape, pull down to the deepest part of the gingival sulcus, and then slide up and down to clean the tooth surface. Then wrap around the adjacent tooth and repeat the cleaning.

As usual use the toothbrush to clean the inner surfaces and chewing surfaces of all the teeth.