Are You Building Healthy Habits with Aligners?
Try Habit Stacking for Oral Health with Healthy Smile Pharmacy
Wearing aligners?
Know the aligner cleaning drill but its sometimes a bit hit and miss? Upscale your habits easily and never be tempted to skimp on aligner oral hygiene again.
When wearing aligners you need to form these three habits:
1. Always being prepared to practise the routine
2. Practising the three times a day brushing routine
3. Maintaining that routine come fire or flood!
Let's get you the mini-stacks to help get you up to speed.
Q: How do I form good oral hygiene habits when having aligner treatment? A: Introduce habit stacking.
small behaviours add up to oral excellence
When it comes to cleaning your teeth and aligners, it’s time to go big or go home. But humans don’t suddenly slot into good habits like teeth into an aligner tray. If you can, pre-aligner treatment, start habit stacking. If you’re already in your trays, start habit stacking now.
Big habits are built from micro-habits. Habit stacking helps you form big habits and for them to become second nature. Micro-habits, those smaller routines within the big habit, aren’t off putting since they’re tiny commitments. Overtime, micro-habits stack-up to become one big habit which doesn’t feel like effort.
We're not overwhelmed, we're brushing, swishing and flossing our teeth and rinsing and bathing those aligner trays, minus the feeling we've dedicated our whole day to the job. Phew!
Big Habit One: Brushing 3 times a day is non-negotiable
no haggling
We’ll say that again: brushing 3 times a day is non-negotiable. This must be the first habit formed. Bathing your retainer for 15 minutes a day is also de rigueur! And yes, it can feel a little like you're attending to a newborn when you're not that familiar, but soon you'll be a dab hand.
The micro habit stack for Big Habit 1
Stack up on old routines
You already know two things:
- Food’s pesky: it gets stuck.
- Bacteria loves lunch!
But you already brush twice a day so, breakfast and dinner are taken care of. Sucks to be you, bacteria!
Now, halfway between waking and sleeping, adopt an easy third session. Pop your kit in your bag. Or keep an extra kit at work (your desk has never brimmed with such medical grade care if you're using the Aligner Brace Daily Care Kit - no flies on you!). While you're brushing, rinse saliva from your aligner. Bish, bash, brush! Job done! Sticker for you.
Not quite up to speed with the new aligner cleaning regime?
let's get you and your aligners spick and span
It’s not uncommon, particularly with a busy lifestyle, for the triple to risk getting missed. But, no Tooth Fairy’s going to grant your wish that you can brush less. Sorry, not sorry. Your teeth are for life and lifelong staining and damage to teeth and gums is not the point of having treatment.
But, your orthodontist would rather you got there eventually, rather than not at all. Start at the beginning with toothbrush and toothpaste and the morning, midday and before bed routine. A few days later, add in a second habit.
We've put together a handy habit stack below to help you smash that fourth habit in two weeks. Less, if you're competitive!
Big Habit Two: Preparation! Preparation! Preparation!
Stack 'em high!
The micro habit stack for Big Habit Two:
Specialise
Plugging away at plaque requires prep. Fail to prepare and prepare to fail. Having all the kit to hand is key. That can be harder than it sounds because, with aligners, you need cleaning tablets. Never clean your aligners with toothpaste and brush – they will lose their transparency, which defeats their invisible ninja ways!
Be an aligner and teeth cleaning star with a subscription
Luckily, if you’re subscribed to our Aligner Brace Daily Care Kit (clever you), you’re prepped to perfection for your brushing routine. You’re even armed to keep bacteria at bay with VITIS Orthodontic Mouthwash in between. Another sticker for you!
Need your kit to be even flexier?
We can help when you log into to manage subscriptions:
- Need the kit more often, you brushing pro? No problem: increase your frequency.
- Planned a holiday? Reschedule your next drop.
- Need the kit pronto? We offer next day delivery!
- Got a couple of kits in waiting? Hit skip.
Don’t get caught with your tools down!
get your brain to do the heavy lifting, not you
If you leave yourself without one key piece of the routine for a few days, you can end up falling into bad habits that could jeopardise treatment success. Not having the interdental brushes you need for half a week can trick your brain into thinking you only need to get interdentally busy a couple of times a week. That’s a no-no! Be interdentally equipped to hunt down those hidden bacteria.
We want your brain to build a superhighway of a neural pathway that takes your behaviour straight to interdental cleaning before you can second guess yourself.
Don’t get stuck on your aligner
avoid being in a jam to support big habit two
Tray change day is always a tight squeeze! Get ahead with a retriever (no, not the canine kind!). This handy addition to your kit is helpful, just in case that tray is somewhat stubborn to free yourself from. It’ll save on the little dance that you need to perform to the Tooth Fairy to release yourself from a snug aligner tray! This way, you'll be full steam ahead to soaking and brushing. Neat.
Big Habit Three: Maintain. Maintain. Maintain.
come rain or come shine ...
The micro habit stack for Big Habit Three
Don’t be a stranger to your dentist
Keep up your six-monthly appointments with your regular dentist, as well as seeing the orthodontist. They both look after different aspects of your mouth health, so you’ll need dates in your diary for both. The hygienist will probably want to see you, too! It’s amazing how popular teeth straightening makes you!
Life happens – let it!
You’ll wear your aligners for a long time. There could be study, exams, promotions, arguments, celebrations, feasting, heartbreak, house moves, new life, in fact, all manner of life ...
Don’t let life put you off your brush stroke. Ground yourself into a routine that never changes. Let your teeth do the changing, but keep your brushing exactly the same!
Get busy with a tongue scraper
don't be surprised if things snowball!
Once you catch the cleaning bug, you’ll want to hunt down and invade all the safe harbours for plaque. Did you know, the surface of your tongue can be a home for the yellow stuff? Try Dr. Wieder’s Original Tung Brush. He was a dentist, so he knew exactly how to design this bad boy!
Good luck. Remember, oral health IS health and, with straighter teeth, you’ll enjoy better oral health.
Healthy Smile Pharmacy - delivering smiles
Keep brushing!
