Patients who come to the orthodontics department may hear the doctor say the most often: “Go back to brush your teeth well!” Some patients feel that they have brushed their teeth with great care, but the doctor still does not meet the standard. Routine care The routine care of oral hygiene is not “brushing”, during the orthodontic treatment, our requirement is “brushing after meals” and “brushing in the morning and evening”. This means that you should brush your teeth at least five times a day – in the morning, after three meals, and before going to bed. If you add in extra meals and snacks every day, you can do the math according to your own eating habits. The two main tools for brushing teeth: toothpaste and toothbrush. There are a variety of orthodontic toothbrushes on the market, you can choose according to your needs. But this is not forced, I personally recommend patients to use the toothbrush has two main elements: “small head” and “medium bristles”. As for toothpaste, there is no special requirement, there is basically no low fluoride area in our country, so if you are not caries susceptible patients, there is no need to use fluoride toothpaste for a long time; children under three years old are not recommended to use fluoride toothpaste; drug toothpaste is not recommended to be used continuously, one can replace ordinary toothpaste after it is used up; if you have chronic periodontitis and other oral diseases, you should use drug toothpaste according to your oral condition and medical advice. Some patients may say, “How much toothpaste do you need to brush your teeth so many times a day during orthodontic treatment? My answer is: use toothpaste + toothbrush for morning and evening brushing, and use only toothbrush for daytime brushing! How do I brush my teeth? Simply put, all the teeth of the mouth, lip and cheek side, tongue and palate side, as well as the upper and lower teeth occlusal surface should be carefully brushed, leaving no dead ends, so that a circle of brushing down generally should be in 3-5 minutes! Auxiliary care Because there are many treatment components in the mouth during orthodontic treatment, many times using a toothbrush alone cannot thoroughly clean the teeth, so some auxiliary tools are needed, commonly used are dental floss, interdental brush, flosser and mouthwash. Patients can choose the appropriate auxiliary tools to help clean their teeth according to their actual situation (the details of how to use them will be published in a separate article). It is important to note that all aids are used after the toothbrush has cleaned the majority of the tooth surface, so using aids alone will not achieve a complete cleaning of the teeth! In particular, some patients think that they do not need to brush their teeth, mouthwash use is good, this is not the effect of cleaning teeth! Do not put the cart before the horse! Let’s summarize, oral hygiene care during orthodontic treatment is very important, the key point of health care is “find ways to brush your teeth clean”, the implementation point is “health care concept in mind, toothpaste toothbrush with you, auxiliary methods when necessary”! The above health care points are also applicable to non-orthodontic patients, I hope you enjoy the teeth gradually straight and beautiful at the same time, no tooth decay!