Orthodontic Food Preferences and Habits

Orthodontist Recommendations

Squeaky Clean Appliances

Great Looks - Best Alignment

Food Basics

Changing Our Habits and Choices

• Ice
• Corn chips
• Hard Pizza Crust
• Hard Breads (bagels, French bread, hard rolls)
• Hard Candy (Jolly Ranchers, etc.)
• Hard Nuts (filberts, brazil, etc)
• Lollipops (e.g., Tootsie Roll Pops)
• Peppermint sticks - candy canes
• Lifesavers
• Popcorn kernels (partially or not popped)
• Large pretzels

• Gum (especially bubble gum)
• Jelly beans
• Caramels
• Now and Later candy
• Tootsie rolls
• Starburst
• Licorice
• Taffy
• Skittles
• Sugar Daddies
• Peanut Brittle
• Candy Apples

• Fingernails
• Ball point pens
• Pencils
• Using teeth as a tool (opening packages, wire stripping)

• Carrots and celery: grate or cut into thinner pieces
• Apples: cut into smaller bite size portions
• Corn on the cob: remove from cob
• Ribs and Chicken: remove from bone
• Cereals without nuts or hard pieces
• Tender cooked meats - no wrestling match chewing
• Enjoy more fruits: strawberries, kiwi, sliced bananas

General Concepts

Brushing and Flossing

Daily oral hygiene is critical to maintaining healthy teeth and gums during orthodontic treatment. You will notice that it requires more effort to keep your teeth clean with orthodontic appliances in place. Food may become trapped around your brackets and between your teeth and can only be removed by brushing and flossing. Plaque remaining on the teeth due to poor hygiene may cause swelling of the gums, cavities, and white scars on the tooth surface

Brushing after meals should become part of your daily oral hygiene. Use a soft toothbrush with firm pressure and brush at a 45-degree angle to the tooth; brush in small circles above and below the brackets. Your toothbrush will wear out more rapidly because of your appliances, so be sure to replace it when the bristles start to fray. A mechanical or ultrasonic toothbrush are popular options with many of our patients and can be used effectively without damaging your orthodontic appliances. Flossing is critical for cleaning between the teeth and should be done every day. Many flossing aids have been designed for assistance while flossing with braces. We will review hygiene with you at your regular visits and provide you with tips on taking care of your teeth while in orthodontic treatment. Finally, every patient with cemented appliances should be using a daily prescription strength fluoride rinse. For your convenience we have this rinse available for purchase in our office in a variety of flavors.

Oral Hygiene with Orthodontic Appliances

Oral Hygiene Presentation

To provide you with a better understanding of oral hygiene with braces, we have provided the following multimedia presentation.

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Brush after every meal.
Use a toothbrush with a small amount of toothpaste.
Use circular, vibrating motions around the gumline for about 10 seconds on each tooth.
Brush every tooth slowly.
Brush the lower teeth up and the upper teeth down. Also brush your tongue and the roof of your mouth.

Health Benefits of Chewing Gum

New research is indicating that chewing gum offers the surprising health benefits. However, there are no standard benefits on everyone. Each person is a unique, individual and will have different responses to chewing gum.

The results of scientific research indicate chewing gum may be good for a number of things that include: improve memory, stress reduction, increase focus, alertness and concentration, manage weight, improve oral health and etc.

Chewing gum improves memory

Psychologists say, the chewing gum can help in improving memory and enhance cognitive powers. They found that people who chewed throughout tests produced significantly better scores than people who did not. There are a number of potential explanations for that.

The act of continuous chewing or moving of our jaw actually improves our memory. The activity in the area of our brain that is important for memory (the hippocampus) increases while people chew. Some research shows that insulin receptors in the hippocampus may be involved in memory. Chewing gum increases the glucose level which is body-and-mind fuel.

Chewing gum increases blood flow to the brain. Increased heart rate improves oxygen delivery to the brain which can enhance our cognitive powers. Some studies have reported that blood flow to the brain increases by as much as 25 percent to 40 percent during gum chewing. Also the act of chewing speeds up our heartbeat and blood pressure just enough to wake up both left-and right hemispheres to work together.

Chewing gum produces more oxygen, more glucose and disposal of more CO2. This is way chewing gum improves memory.

Chewing gum reduces symptoms of stress

Some teachers encourage students to chew gum during tests to help increase alertness and concentration. Psychiatrists and psychologists believe that chewing gum reduce tension and help to release nervous energy. Chewing gum may provide an outlet for frustration and irritation.

Recent research has shown that the rhythmic motion of chewing gum has a stress-reducing effect because relaxed and satisfied feelings.

Chewing gum helping to manage weight

With low calorie count (5 to 10 per serving), chewing gum is an inexpensive snack. According to some studies the adults who chewed the gum ate 36 calories less of the snack than adults who did not chew gum. Both regular and sugar free chewing gum helped the adults to eat less.

The physical act of gum chewing may help to reduce your cravings for high calorie snacks. According to a group of scientists chewing gum can burn about 11 calories per hour.

Chewing gum improves digestion

Chewing gum helps to improve intestinal motility, also helps to increase saliva flow which promotes more frequent swallowing. This helps to prevent reflux of acid from the stomach back into the throat.

Chewing gum improves oral health

The results of scientific research demonstrate that chewing gum is good for oral health and teeth specifically. Chewing gum increases saliva, which is the most important component of oral health and powerful protector of the oral cavity.

Stimulated saliva corrects a potentially harmful environment using its high concentration of buffers, minerals and antibacterial components. That helps to flush sugars, food debris and decay-causing acids out of the mouth.

Sugar free chewing gum has a number of dental benefits. Sugar free chewing gum doesn't cause tooth decay. It demineralises tooth enamel and has an antimicrobial effect. Those who chewed sugar free gum after eating had fewer cavities than those who did not.

Chewing gum freshens breath, whitens teeth by reducing stains and preventing stains from accumulating and reduces plaque.

Others benefits of chewing gum

Some people become more attentive and feel more alert when they chew gum. Chewing can take away sleepiness. Chewing gum that is sweetened with xylito doesn’t raise blood sugar. Also chewing gum has good taste.

As remind there is no standard effect on everyone. Therefore it is difficult to make a general rule that applies to everyone

The oral health advantages of chewing sugarfree gum

This article was previously published from a supplement for Dentistry magazine from the UK.

With chewing gum now a universally accepted habit, Juliette Reeves considers the oral health benefits from which your patients can benefit.

For hundreds of years, people have chewed on natural materials including thickened resin and latex from certain trees, sweet grasses, leaves, grains and waxes. Ancient Greeks chewed gum thousands of years ago and were believed to chew tree resin taken from bark of the Mastic tree.

American Indians used to quench their thirsts by chewing the gum-like resin that forms on spruce trees when the bark is cut. Spruce became the first commercial chewing gum, being sold and traded from lumps. The use of spruce continued until the 1850s when paraffin wax became the new popular base for chewing gum.

During World War II, US military personnel spread the popularity of chewing gum by trading it and giving it as gifts to people from Europe, Africa, Asia and around the rest world. Today Wrigley’s ORBIT is the leading dental brand of sugarfree gum from the UK.

Chewing gum is a unique substance because it is chewed for a prolonged period but contributes relatively few calories or nutrition. Its effects on the oral tissues, therefore, have been studied for many years. William F Semple, an Ohio dentist, used rubber to create a product for jaw exercise and gum stimulation. He received the first patent to manufacture chewing gum from December 1869.

This article looks at the oral health benefits of sugarfree gum that we as a profession can explain to patients when recommending gum as part of the oral care routine.

Oral health

Chewing gum itself does contribute to plaque reduction, and some studies have shown beneficial effects on oral hygiene, calculus and/or gingivitis. In addition to this, there is an increasing body of evidence emerging that chewing of sugarfree gum like Wrigley’s ORBIT can remineralize the tooth surface and help prevent caries.

Remineralization

Saliva is normally secreted continuously at about 500ml per day but can be stimulated by mastication. Chewing a sugarfree gum can increase the initial salivary flow rate by a factor of 10.

In addition to the more effective clearance of carbohydrate from the mouth, stimulated saliva contains higher concentrations of remineralizing ions and bicarbonate to buffer the acids formed from plaque.

The use of sugarfree gum after eating meals and snacks, therefore, promotes the remineralization of enamel lesions and has been shown to reduce clinical caries development – from one study by up to 40%.

It has also been shown that this stimulated saliva is more effective from its ability to buffer and remineralize. Research has suggested that salivary stimulation from chewing sugarfree gum after the consumption of sugary foods not only prevents the fall from plaque pH normally seen, but also results from an increased remineralizing effect from previously demineralised enamel.

Caries prevention

Chewing sugar free gum has been proven, from a number of clinical studies, to reduce caries by stimulating the production of saliva, which neutralizes the plaque acids that cause tooth decay. It has been calculated that people chewing sugarfree gum three times a day reduce their risk of caries by 40% compared using those who do not chew gum.

The protective effect of stimulated saliva has the most impact during the plaque acid attack, which occurs about 20 to 30 minutes after a cariogenic food intake. However, most salivary stimulation ceases shortly after swallowing the food, and salivary composition returns to normal within about five minutes.

The protective effects of saliva, therefore, are not mobilised when it is most needed. In order to enhance salivary protection during the caries attack, a stimulant is needed that is not itself cariogenic. Chewing a sugarfree gum, like ORBIT‚ for 20 minutes after eating provides the stimulus needed.

Changes from the composition of stimulated saliva leads to a greater ability to prevent a fall from salivary pH, following the consumption of refined carbohydrates. The greater volume and rate of flow of stimulated saliva also results from an increased ability to clear sugars and acids from around the teeth. At the same time the plaque microflora are unable to produce significant amounts of acid. Thus, these properties of stimulated saliva reduce the overall caries susceptibility of the individual.

Studies have shown that chewing sugarfree gum leads to fewer caries compared to non-chewing controls. The implication is that sugarfree products actually inhibit caries’ activity due to dietary carbohydrate.

For over 25 years Wrigley has worked from partnership using the dental profession and pioneered independent research into the oral care benefits of chewing sugarfree gum, helping the dental profession understand the importance of saliva from dental health.

Currently 22 dental associations accredit or endorse the Wrigley dental care brand and many dental professionals recommend Wrigley’s ORBIT sugarfree gum as an aid to oral health and to help prevent tooth decay as part of the oral care routine.

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 Surprising Ways to Keep Your Teeth Health

In addition to brushing and flossing, a healthful diet (with natural or added fluoride) protects teeth from decay and keeps the gums healthy. Read on to discover how to keep your smile safe and strong.

Tooth decay (cavities and dental caries) and gum disease are caused by colonies of bacteria that constantly coat the teeth with a sticky film called plaque. If plaque is not brushed away, these bacteria break down the sugars and starches in foods to produce acids that wear away the tooth enamel. The plaque also hardens into tartar, which can lead to gum inflammation, or gingivitis.

A well-balanced diet provides the minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients essential for healthy teeth and gums. Fluoride, occurring naturally in foods and water, or added to the water supply, can be a powerful tool in fighting decay. It can reduce the rate of cavities by as much as 60 percent.

Dental Health Guidelines

Start right by eating right during pregnancy. Make sure that your children's teeth get off to a good start by eating sensibly during pregnancy. Particularly important is calcium, which helps to form strong teeth and bones, and vitamin D, which the body needs to absorb calcium.

You need lots of calcium for healthy teeth and gums. Low-fat dairy products, fortified soy and rice beverages, canned salmon or sardines (with bones), almonds, and dark green leafy vegetables are excellent sources of calcium.

You need vitamin D to help absorb the calcium. Vitamin D is obtained from fluid milk, fortified soy and rice beverages, margarine, fatty fish such as salmon, and moderate exposure to the sun.

Fluoride is key. To a large extent, cavities can be prevented by giving children fluoride in the first few years of life. Fluoride is supplied through fluoridated water (not all municipalities fluoridate their water supply, however), beverages made with fluoridated water, tea, and some fish, as well as many brands of toothpaste and some mouthwash. Fluoride supplements are available for children who don't have access to fluoridated drinking water. It is wise to check to see if the water supply in your area is fluoridated. Excess consumption of fluoride can cause mottling of the teeth.

Also needed are phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin A, and beta carotene. In addition to calcium and fluoride, minerals needed for the formation of tooth enamel include phosphorus (richly supplied in meat, fish, and eggs) and magnesium (found in whole grains, spinach, and bananas). Vitamin A also helps build strong bones and teeth. Good sources of beta carotene, which the body turns into vitamin A, include orange-colored fruits and vegetables and the dark green leafy vegetables.

Children are particularly vulnerable to tooth decay; parents should:
1. Provide a good diet throughout childhood
2. Brush children's teeth until they're mature enough to do a thorough job by themselves (usually by 6 or 7 years old)
3. Supervise twice-daily brushing and flossing thereafter
4. Never put babies or toddlers to bed accompanied by a bottle of milk (which contains the natural sugar lactose), juice, or other sweet drink
5. Never dip pacifiers in honey or syrup

1. The sugar factor. Sucrose, most familiar to us as granulated sugar, is the leading cause of tooth decay, but it is far from the only culprit. Although sugary foods, including cookies, candies, and sodas, are major offenders, starchy foods (such as breads and cereals) also play an important part in tooth decay. When starches mix with amylase, an enzyme in saliva, the result is an acid bath that erodes the enamel and makes teeth more susceptible to decay. If starchy foods linger in the mouth, the acid bath is prolonged, and the potential for damage is all the greater.

Be careful when eating dried fruits. Dried fruits can have an adverse effect on teeth, because they are high in sugar and cling to the teeth. Even unsweetened fruit juices can contribute to tooth decay -- they are acidic and contain relatively high levels of simple sugars.

Fresh fruits, especially apples, are better choices. Fresh fruit, although both sweet and acidic, is much less likely to cause a problem, because chewing stimulates the saliva flow. Saliva decreases mouth acidity and washes away food particles. Apples, for example, have been called nature's toothbrush because they stimulate the gums, increase saliva flow and reduce the build-up of cavity-causing bacteria. A chronically dry mouth also contributes to decay. Saliva flow slows during sleep; going to bed without brushing the teeth is especially harmful. Certain drugs, including those used for high blood pressure, also cut down saliva flow.

2. Gum disease. More teeth are lost through gum disease than through tooth decay. Gum disease is likely to strike anyone who neglects oral hygiene or eats a poor diet. Particularly at risk are people with alcoholism, malnutrition, or AIDS/HIV infection or who are being treated with steroid drugs or certain cancer chemotherapies. Regular brushing and flossing help to prevent puffy, sore, and inflamed gums.

Gingivitis, a very common condition that causes the gums to redden, swell, and bleed, is typically caused by the gradual buildup of plaque. Treatment requires good dental hygiene and removal of plaque by a dentist or dental hygienist. Left untreated, gingivitis can lead to periodontitis -- an advanced infection of the gums that causes teeth to loosen and fall out. There may even be more serious consequences of gum disease. Studies have shown a link between poor oral health and heart disease. Bleeding gums apparently provide an entry port for bacteria or viruses that can cause heart problems. Women with tooth or gum problems are also more likely to give birth to premature babies.

Bleeding gums may also be a sign that your intake of vitamin C is deficient. Be sure that your diet includes plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables every day; munching on hard, fibrous foods, such as a celery stick or carrot, stimulates the gums.

3. Helpful foods. You can protect your teeth by concluding meals with foods that do not promote cavities and may even prevent them. For instance, aged cheeses help prevent cavities if consumed at the end of a meal. Chewing sugarless gum stimulates the flow of saliva, which decreases acid and flushes out food particles. Rinsing your mouth and brushing your teeth after eating are important strategies to prevent cavities. Here are some tips:

Consume Plenty Of
1. Calcium-rich foods, such as low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese.
2. Fresh fruits and vegetables for vitamins A and C, and for chewing in order to promote healthy gums.
3. Tea, which is a good source of fluoride.

Limit
1. Dried fruits and other sticky foods that lodge between the teeth.

Avoid
1. Sweet drinks and snacks.
2. Steady sipping of acidic drinks for prolonged periods.

Teeth whitening safer than orange juice, says study

Concentrations of hydrogen peroxide used in professional and over the counter teeth whitening processes don't cause significant changes to tooth enamel, according to US researchers.

Conversely the researchers found that an everyday practice such as drinking acidic fruit juices can have significant negative effects on the hardness and the roughness of tooth enamel.

The scientists, led by YanFang Ren at the Eastman Institute for Oral Health at the University of Rochester, investigated the effects of hydrogen peroxide 6 percent on tooth enamel.

According to the team, when compared to orange juice the hydrogen peroxide did not lead to any significant changes in the hardness of surface enamel.

After 20 minutes of daily exposure for five days to eBright Tooth Whitening Accelerator (6 percent hydrogen peroxide) provided by Beyond Dental Health which part funded the study, surface hardness was reduced by 5.6 percent.

Insignificant when compared to orange juice

However, compared to 20 minutes exposure to orange juice which reduced surface enamel by 84.4 percent, the researchers concluded the teeth whitening was insignificant.

"Enamel surface becomes significantly softer and rougher after the orange juice challenge," wrote the authors.

"The acid is so strong that the tooth is literally washed away," said lead author Ren.

Furthermore, softened and roughened enamel surfaces may predispose the tooth to the development of dental caries and non-carious lesions such as abrasion and attrition, according to the study.

The authors discussed the potential of fluoride to protect against the assault of acidic soft drinks on the teeth as it has been shown to help harden the enamel surface after whitening treatments; however, they were unsure as to fluoride's potential to fight against the dangers of acidic soft drinks.

"In contrast, the effectiveness of fluoride treatments on erosion caused by soft drinks has not been firmly established. Some studies have indicated that fluoride treatment had limited effect_but others have show that higher concentrations of fluoride could indeed reduce the erosive effects of soft drinks on surface enamel."

The researchers conclude that the results provide dentists with a unique perspective on the relative impact of tooth whitening on dental hard tissues.