DD getting braces - any tips?

[scrappydappydoo]

DD is getting braces fitted next week. Any tips for the first few days - best pain relief? Food? I’m sure we’ll get lots of official advice but I’m after the ‘wish I’d known’ type of thing. TIA

Soup, ibuprofen and wax on the brackets.

I never got braces but my brother did for years and really suffered bless him. He lived off soup with a straw , bonjela , paracetamol , yoghurts and soft foods so only the soft bit of the bread not the crust, no hard sweets etc. He got so many ulcers but those were the tips off the dentist, stay hydrated to keep the mouth moist x

Wax? Do I get that from orthodontist or somewhere like Boots?

Thanks itsemily- your poor brother - hope it was worth it in the end! hopefully DD will only have them for 2 years.

Your orthodontist should provide wax, however, the best tip we had was that the wax on mini babybels is much more effective.

Second the above. Good painkillers, wax and soft foods. Also the pain can sometimes be as bad when they're tightened, in subsequent visits. The pain normally improves immeasurably within a week or so of them being fitted/tightened.

@scrappydappydoo definitely worth it , sad thing is he had to have full braces for one tooth! His baby tooth never came out , so he went for an X-ray and his adult tooth had grown upwards rather than down so he had to have surgery on his pallet, a chain hooked to the tooth and then every week he had to go and get it tightened until it finally brought his tooth down. I think he had them for almost 4 years. I hope your daughter is ok with them, get her to suck ice too after she’s had it tightened as that’s when it’s most painful x

Definitely get the orthodontist to provide some wax as they very often rub in the first days.

Get plenty of soft food for the first several days as the braces pressing on the teeth will make them hurt and your DD will probably not want anything chewy or firm to eat. We used paracetamol or ibuprofen for pain relief and it was sufficient.

Preventative ibuprofen as they get fitted, soup, yogurt, rice pudding, smoothies. Keep the painkillers topped up.

Each time they get adjusted you’ll need to do this.

Also gentle brushing as my electric toothbrush was really sore on some teeth.

I get the wax free from the orthodontist.

It is painful when they are fitted and with some of the tightenings (some are worse than others). So painkillers (don't forget calpol can be syringed in if it's really sore to open the mouth too far) and soft food for a few days - soup pasta that doesn't require much chewing is quite handy!

We get the wax free from the orthodontist, may need some mouth ulcer gel as well. The initial brackets didn't rub my DD's cheeks but the first time they put additional hooks on the wires that really did!

Also - it is likely to break. We've had elastics snap, brackets pop off and wires work loose.

We also had a lesson on brace/teeth cleaning, some of the TePe brushes are handy to get under the wire to clean properly.