Dr. Melanie Hebert

Oral hygiene is very important throughout your entire life but especially while you’re in braces. The key to staying cavity free with or without braces is consistent flossing and brushing. A patient without braces may only need to brush for 2 minutes. A patient with braces may need to brush for 4-5 minutes because the brackets and wires provide extra obstacles to getting your teeth clean. Brushing along the gum line softly and in small circles and flossing at least 3 times a week will help to prevent gum puffiness. Hope this helps!

A tooth infection will unfortunately not go away on its own. It is important to see a dentist soon to prevent further issues. Facial swelling can occur, which is very dangerous. Your dentist will most likely prescribe an antibiotic and either perform a root canal or extract the tooth to rid the infection. Antibiotics will help prevent inflammation, but antibiotics alone will not cure the infection.

Anesthesia for a root canal procedure is typically the same level of pain as any other dental procedure such as a filling.

Yes. It is standard procedure to administer numbing medicine (often Lidocaine) before removing cavities and placing a filling.

It is common for tooth decay to occur while a patient is in braces. Once your cavities are diagnosed by your general dentist, ask him or her if our wire needs to be removed for him or her to have access to fixing the cavities. If they need the wire off, call your orthodontist and schedule an appointment to get your wire off the same day as your filling appointment. Once the filling is done, you can return to the orthodontist to have the wire put back on. If the general dentist says he or she can access the cavities without removing the wire, there is no need to contact your orthodontist, and you can schedule an appointment for the cavities to be fixed.