Cleaning dentures and appliances

Plastic is softer than enamel. What polishes the tooth scratches a denture or an appliance — and a scratched surface takes up more plaque and more colour than a smooth one. Hence a simple basic rule for everything removable: clean mechanically, but not with toothpaste.

Removable dentures

• Clean daily with a denture brush and liquid soap or washing-up liquid. Toothpaste is too abrasive.
• Work over a basin with water in it or over a towel — dentures break when dropped.
• Cleaning tablets loosen discolouration and deposits; they do not brush. They are an addition, not a replacement.
• No boiling water, no microwave, no chlorine cleaners and no vinegar. Heat deforms the plastic; chlorine attacks metal parts.
• Out at night as a rule, so that the mucosa can recover. Keep dry in a ventilated container, or in water as instructed by the practice.
• Brush the remaining natural teeth and the clasp teeth particularly thoroughly. They carry the load and are most often the next to be lost.

Oral mucosa, alveolar ridges and tongue are cleaned with a soft brush or a damp cloth — including where there are no teeth left. And a denture that presses or wobbles does not belong in adhesive cream but at the practice: the jawbone recedes beneath a denture over the years, and the fit has to be adjusted.

Transparent appliances and aligners

Aligners are worn 20 to 22 hours a day. Whatever is underneath stays there — and that applies to sugar and acid just as much as to plaque.

• Drink only water while the appliance is in the mouth. Sugary and acidic drinks are held beneath the plastic and act far longer than they otherwise would.
• Brush your teeth before putting it back in, or at least rinse the mouth vigorously.
• Clean the appliance in cold or lukewarm water with a soft brush, without toothpaste. Hot water deforms it.
• Do not use denture cleaning tablets unless the manufacturer expressly approves them — they can cloud the plastic.
• Do not forget fluoride: anyone wearing an appliance for many hours a day has less saliva washing over the teeth. A fluoride toothpaste is particularly important here, and where the risk is increased a gel as well.

The same applies to grinding splints, with one addition: they are worn at night and cleaned in the morning — straight away, not in the evening before being put in again.

Fixed braces

A fixed brace is the most demanding situation that home oral hygiene knows. A margin remains around every bracket, and the wires make access with a brush difficult. The typical consequence is white decalcification spots that remain visible after the brace is removed — the most common avoidable damage from an orthodontic treatment.

• Brush after every meal, not just morning and evening.
• A special brush with a thinned-out middle cleans bracket and tooth in one pass.
• Single-tuft brushes reach the edges of the brackets that no normal brush reaches.
• Interdental brushes pass beneath the wire.
• Rinse with a fluoride solution daily and use a fluoride gel once a week. With a fixed brace that is not optional.
• Avoid hard, sticky and fibrous foods — they loosen brackets and get caught.

Retainers

The thin wire bonded behind the front teeth after a tooth correction often stays for years or permanently. It is a place where tartar gathers, and it can only be worked around incompletely with a normal brush. Dental floss with a stiffened end or a very fine interdental brush belong to the daily routine here, and the site should be expressly inspected at every cleaning at the practice.