Routine’s boring! 

Routine? It doesn’t motivate us all!  For some of us, it's low reward stuff.  Dopamine – our reward hormone – might have been high when we first started treatment, but the repetitive nature of the task of keeping up with oral hygiene means dopamine wanes. We’re neither motivated to get on with our cleaning aligners nor rewarded when we brush our teeth. Dragola! Patting ourselves on the back for keeping up the orthodontic routine for the nth time today? Nope, our brain says, it's just not enough!  

I can't see the finish line!  

Not all of us are good at delaying gratification. Straight teeth in twelve months’ time might as well be the end of time to our mind! Yes, it will be gratifying to get that smile to celebrate, but some days it feels it would be more gratifying right now to slide into bed without getting busy with our orthodontic toothpaste. The temptation to just rinse an aligner under the tap can feel weighty.  

We’re wonderfully inconsistent: Some of us go through times when our brains suddenly switch things up. We get busy brushing teeth, dutifully soaking our aligners, rinsing in between brushing, no food particle is left un-swept by our interdental brushes.  Then there’s the other days when the routine becomes sporadic and random. It might be something – catching a cold, for example – or nothing that trips us up. 

Maybe we have some neuro-spiciness?  

Neurodiversity means we might experience ‘task defiance’. We’re not rebels; it’s just that the aligner oral care routine can at times feel emotionally weighty. Frustration, overwhelm, boredom? We’d rather avoid the drama, thanks. 

Fear of losing something you have helps us to develop positive behaviours. It’s time to educate ourselves about what we can lose if we don’t pay attention to our oral health in aligners.  

But we need fear in tiny doses. We’re not trying to provoke full blown anxiety attacks! Images of decayed teeth may seem a great motivator, but our brains struggle to think that could be me. And we want to avoid nightmares! 

Let’s start at the beginning with a very real problem. Your lovely, strong gnashers? What if they developed white spots? Those lesions are decalcification spots – where the minerals phosphorous and calcium have been leached from your tooth enamel by plaque acids.  

Imagine your teeth with white decalcification spots. It’s not a big leap of the imagination, right – a second tone of white on your teeth? Developing some concern about what might happen if you don’t follow your daily oral care routine for aligner patients? You’re developing loss aversion.  

If you’re using VITIS Aligner Brace Daily Care Kit, those medical grade orthodontic products are brilliant at breaking up the bust up between plaque, your aligners and your teeth. They help remineralise tooth enamel, too. The toothpaste, because it’s semi-liquid, oozes into those awkward gaps and spaces like a shapeshifting ninja! 

Between brushing, the orthodontic fluoride mouthwash swooshes in, so you’re fluoride flush. Bonus: your mouthwash is alcohol free so it doesn’t dry your mouth. Did you know your saliva helps fight against white spots, too? What a partnership! No one around here’s losing their uniformly white tooth colour!  

You don’t like routine, but you always manage to binge a good hour of TV before bed. Hmmm! Let’s use that habit with temptation bundling.   

Your viewing habit’s the temptation, so let’s bundle it up with that final brush up of the day. Brush your teeth before you settle down for that cosy viewing hour. Pop your aligner trays in their appliance soaking bath with their soaking tablet.  

During the opening credits, ignore the ‘skip recap’ button – use that time to reunite your gaps with an interdental brush. It’s an hour from bedtime, so you’re not too tired.  

If the dopamine’s asking, what’s in it for me, let’s tackle the yellow teeth stain risk that comes with wearing aligners. Some yellow stains are caused by the foods we eat – take some advice from How to Beat Staining Food and Drink at Their Own Game. But, plaque can harden if it's not removed thoroughly and tartar can form. Your orthodontic team or hygienist can help you make a fresh start by scraping that tartar away. But a fresh start isn’t always available, if your enamel has been damaged by plaque acid.  

From: Ugh! I have to brush my teeth again before I can put my aligners back in!  

To: I take care of my teeth, aligners or no aligners. I’m a bad breath and cavity free zone! 

You are what you believe you are. Thinking, I use mouthwash in between brushing, could well mean you act from your values. Think about yourself as someone who gets on with their oral hygiene without fighting it or giving it a second thought and you’re more likely to be that person.  Adulting bonus points! 

We get it, having had teeth that weren’t straight, you might have developed some negative thoughts about yourself and, in the past, asked, what’s the point of looking after my teeth? But you’re on a journey that gently (ok, sometimes it doesn’t feel so gentle, but you get what we mean) moves you away from your old look smile.