When Braces Aren’t a Pain in the Mouth

‘My teeth weren’t crooked, but they weren’t perfectly straight either.  I thought the way they looked could be improved. I had friends who were in braces, and one of my sisters had worn braces, so I wasn’t nervous about wearing them.  

I asked my dentist if she could straighten my teeth and she said she could.’ Shaimaa’s dentist is trained in orthodontics; it helped her feel at ease with the process. ‘I was on the waiting list for a few months and then had my bond up session when I was in Year 10.’ 

‘I was nervous in my bond up session. I thought I spotted a needle and syringe which made me anxious. But my dentist showed me the syringe I’d imagined was actually the bonding adhesive [absolutely no needle, we’d like to add!] and she squeezed some onto the back of her hand to prove it. She always demonstrated what she was going to do before she did it and that put me at ease!’ 

‘I was told to use interdental brushes and to keep teeth and brackets clean and to use mouthwash in between brushing.’  

Shortly after, Shaimaa stepped out of the dental surgery and into the world with her braces. 

‘I’d heard braces could be painful in the first few days or weeks of having a brace fitted. But I was lucky and I didn’t suffer any of the discomfort friends had told me about.’  

(Shaimaa was a lucky duck! If you’re not in the same boat and early days with your braces are proving tricky - swollen gums, pain, and sore soft tissue can appear in the early days - try some of the tips and tricks from Five Quick Ways to Stop Braces Being a Pain in the Mouth). It’s a good idea to equip with Gengigel: The Pink One to get ahead of the curve and heal oral tissues or wounds fast. 

‘It did take me a while to get used to braces, though! But, as my teeth started to move and get straighter, I began to really like them.’  

Shaimaa wasn’t worried about any movie stereotypes of teens in braces being nerds, in fact, the reaction that she got from people was that she really suited them! 

‘To use brace wax! My friend introduced me to it one day when a bracket was making my inner cheek sore. She gave me a piece of her wax, I moulded it on and the relief was instant.  

That night, I asked my parents to buy me my own pack of wax and I carried it with me from then on. 

Wax doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but it is!’ 

It’s true – Orthodontic Wax is a big deal, yet it’s small enough to fit in your pocket. Now that’s a small but mighty piece of genius right there!  

Hands up if you like to see if advice is true?  

Shaimaa, like most curious teens, decided to put a piece of advice to the test. Like all fixed brace wearers, she’d been warned not to eat sticky or hard sweets. But her curiosity got the better of her. 

‘I loved eating chocolate eclair sweets, so I thought I’d try to eat one with braces.  It broke a bracket. As I’d broken one bracket, I thought I’d just keep eating the sweet. Another bracket broke off!’  Yup, that’ll happen! 

We ask if the chocolate eclair was worth it? ‘No! I lost time straightening my teeth. The only good thing was that my dentist didn’t ask how the brackets came off.’ And, maybe wisely, Shaimaa didn’t tell her.  

Lesson learned. After that, Shaimaa decided that breaking brackets wasn’t worth the setback in time.  

‘Once my braces were in place, I found that I loved having them!   

Before braces, I never felt confident smiling in photographs, but, with my braces, I was happy to smile and show them off whenever anyone was taking a photo.’  

Braces were a promise to her future self, a sign that she was heading towards the straighter teeth she’d wanted for a long time, and this gave her reason to feel confident. The ‘problem’ was being sorted so she felt carefree! 

There’s evidence that having your teeth straightened can help improve confidence and self-esteem in the long term, as well as making it easier to clean your teeth longer term once those brackets come off!  

It’s more than tickety-boo; it’s tick-tick-BOOM! Thank you fixed braces! 

As a teen, Shaimaa wasn’t alone in finding that, surrounded by peers on school premises, the lunchtime brush up was a sticking point for cleaning her braces.  

Being in fixed braces comes with a non-negotiable, 3x a day brushing routine. But it can feel awkward when teen hormones make you think the whole world’s watching and judging. (Just a supportive note from us, it’s not, and the hormone tsunami will pass eventually!). But, for the time being, as far as Shaimaa was concerned, being a ‘stand out’ and brushing braces at a sink in the school bathroom was a hard no!  

However, she found a suitable workaround which kept her and her braces hygienically compliant. And we thoroughly approve of compliance, Shaimaa!

She still split the day into 3 cleaning sessions, morning and evening were two (one of those always before bed), but after lunch her school day is short so a rinse with water after eating and, as soon as school was out, she was able to brush her teeth when she returned home, meaning she was able to follow the three times a charm daily rule. 

The brush, interdental and rinse in between brings clinical grade to brace cleaning rhythm!