Best Toothpaste For Braces & Other Useful Products

In this article I will be taking a look at the best toothpaste, mouthwash, floss and orthodontic kits for braces.

You can click here to jump to a particular section:

• Best toothpaste for braces
• Best mouthwash for braces
• Best floss for braces
• Other useful tools for braces wearers

I’m a former braces wearer myself and have tested a wide range of products as part of my role here at Electric Teeth.

I have spoken about how easy some electric toothbrushes are to take with you in my article on the best electric toothbrushes for braces.  But this is not always the best or most convenient solution. In this article I will have a look at some other options.

The advice from dental professionals is to clean your teeth at least 2 times a day.

For those wearing a brace an additional brushing session is normally required.

This can be problematic for many people as they go about their day. Food particles that are allowed to remain in brackets of the brace until the night time clean will start developing into plaque.

Plaque begins to form within a couple of hours of brushing. Furthermore, lodged food particles can be unsightly and even lead to bad breath.

Finding those extra few minutes in your day to give your teeth the extra clean is important.  Even if you can’t find as much time as you would ideally like, a minute’s attention to your teeth and brace after food will go a lot further than paying no attention at all.

Best Toothpaste For Braces

Whether you are shopping online or you are looking at the shelves in the grocery store, the number of choices you have for toothpaste is simply quite amazing.

Do you go for Crest, Oral-B, Colgate, Sensodyne, Aquafresh, Arm & Hammer or any other choices?

Is it the sensitive, whitening, repair and protect or the mint flavor?!! Ahh so much to choose from, that is all before you start wondering why is that tube $2 and that tube $8, what makes that so special that it is 4x the price?

We want to make this simple for you.

There is no one best toothpaste for braces.

Unless you have been given directions by your orthodontist to use a specific product for some reason, you need to as a minimum look for and make use of a toothpaste that contains fluoride.

Most of the typical over the counter/off the shop shelf toothpastes contains this ingredient.

Fluoride based toothpastes are the recommendation for almost all patients with very few exceptions.  Fluoride helps to keep your teeth healthy and strong, protecting the tooth surface as best as possible from decay.  As the acids in the mouth that form after eating break down the enamel (at a microscopic level) the saliva and fluoride work to counteract this.

Where fluoride is not present, they can be a higher likelihood of that patient developing dental caries.

Even if the local water supply in your area contains fluoride, still purchase a toothpaste with this in it.

Few of us wish to have dull and yellow teeth, even though yellow teeth is quite natural in many cases.  We understand the desire for White teeth and a set of lovely White teeth can certainly help give that confidence to smile.

When wearing a brace AVOID using a whitening toothpaste.

If you were to use when wearing a brace, the whitening paste is only going to come into contact with the part of the tooth that is not hidden by the brackets.

What this means is that if the whitening paste works, when the brace comes off, you can be left with marks/stains where the bracket has been bonded to the tooth and it will then be necessary to find ways to restore an even color to the teeth.

You should wait until any orthodontic work is complete before whitening the teeth, this way you can be assured of a consistent color enhancement across all teeth.

So whilst there is no one best toothpaste, some of our favorites, all of which are American Dental Association approved, are:

Best Mouthwash For Braces

Mouthwash has a place, but if you are using is straight after brushing your teeth, STOP!

You should not rinse your mouth out with water, or mouthwash after brushing your teeth.

This might come as a bit of a surprise to you, but by doing so, you are essentially washing away a lot of the good done by the toothpaste.  The effective ingredient, fluoride is a higher dose in toothpaste compared with mouthwash.

So, if you can do something positive today, it would be to stop this habit.

Mouthwash is best used in between brushing sessions.  Maybe in the middle of the morning or the afternoon, where you wish to have a cleaner and fresher mouth, but don’t need or want to brush at this time.

Whilst nothing beats brushing and flossing, rinsing the mouth out with mouthwash 30-60 minutes or so after having a meal, sugary or acidic drink is when you will benefit most.  The mouth rinse can be helpful to try and rid the mouth of damaging bacteria.

Always best to follow the directions given on the bottle of mouthwash for best effect, but be sure to give the rinse a good swish around the mouth. Ensure it gets in all the gaps around the teeth and to not only coat and protect the teeth, but to also dislodge some of the bacteria that you can then spit out.

Just like the toothpaste there is not necessarily one best mouthwash to use with a brace.

You may have a preference for a particular brand or perhaps prefer one without alcohol, a common ingredient in mouthwash that gives many of them the cleaning power that they offer.

Some of our favorites (all ADA approved) are:

Best Floss For Braces

Perhaps the biggest frustration for any fixed dental brace wearer is flossing.

Very few enjoy flossing, even without a brace, but the small and intricate gaps within the brackets and wires of braces are a perfect home for bacteria to reside, grow and therefore becomes even more necessary.

There are many tools, including water flossers that can aid with the interdental cleaning required.

Our list of best water flossers for braces gives our suggestions on those you could consider to make your life that little bit easier.

However, it is still strongly advised to still use the traditional string flossing methods and interdental brushes as these are the best options for getting in between all the tight gaps between teeth.

Do get personalized advice from your dentist as the spacing between your teeth will be different to another person and these spaces will too be changing when wearing a brace.

Interdental brushes like those from TePe are often considered the gold standard, but making use of waxed tape floss can be beneficial as this glides easier over the teeth and brace and has a larger surface area to come into contact with the teeth.

It does sadly take a bit of time and dedication, but you should do this everyday.

Tight and fiddly flossing can certainly be, so it is then useful to consider products such as Oral-B’s Super Floss.

Super Floss is the name given by Oral-B to their pre-cut strands of dental floss.  Stiffer at one end, this is designed specifically for feeding the floss through the dental appliance, the process is much easier.  This is then followed by a length of thick floss that effectively cleans the surfaces it makes contact with.  50 strands of floss are provided in the pack.

You could also consider using a floss threader such as those from Gum (view here on Amazon) and BRIDGEAID (view here on Amazon) that allow you to more easily feed your preferred floss in between dental appliances.

Aside from regular string/tape floss the shape and intricacy of the dental appliance can mean that more specialized tools are required.

TePe make a fantastic range of products to suit the needs of any brace wearer.

Generally, TePe interdental brushes are less fiddly than dental floss, and in many cases remove more plaque around the brackets. They are also more compact than a regular toothbrush and so may be a good alternative to a full brushing session after lunch.

TePe are a specialist in interdental cleaning products you can learn about the brand and what an interdental brush in our complete guide to interdental brushes.

Particular products to be aware of that could really help with cleaning your brace are:

TePe Compact Tuft – An angled brush with a rounded tuft, which is especially suitable for cleaning around brackets and along the gum line

TePe Interspace – An angled brush with a tapered tuft, is ideal for cleaning critical areas close to brackets and under wires. Two different angles can be chosen for optimal access.

The following video shows the best technique and shares tips on how to floss correctly.

Best Orthodontic Kits For Braces

When caring for your teeth and brace, it is important to essentially build a toolkit of products you like and want to use.

We have provided some recommendations, but it is no good using these if they do not work for you.  Use what is appropriate and that you find most effective.

Ideally, you would take this toolkit around with you, so you always have it on hand should the situation arise.

Some keep it in a bag, a desk draw at the office or in their car.

There are times though when this is not practical, so it can be handy to have some spares or some essential tools on hand in places you might visit frequently.

Keeping some spare floss at work or in the car might be useful, this way you know should you need to clean up the brace you can with more ease.

However, there are a number of different pre-made kits that you can buy and keep to hand for convenience or emergencies.

Like any other type of dental care product, there is a lot of choice, but here are a couple of options we like. The first one from GUM:

And this one from Platypus:

Your feedback & comments

This information is provided as a guide and we really hope that it has helped you navigate the confusing world of cleaning and taking care of your brace and mouth.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below and we will be sure to get back to you, or do consult your dentist or orthodontist.