Braces can give you a smile that makes you feel your best, and they can also improve your overall oral health. But on the flipside, is it possible for braces to cause cavities? That’s the question we’re here to answer.
In this guide, we’ll take a look at the causes of cavities and how braces treatment can affect their development.
Table of Contents
What Causes Cavities?
Cavities are a type of dental decay that shows up as little holes in your teeth. Plaque is a sticky film made up of bacteria.[ 1 ] The bacteria in plaque release acids that wear away tooth enamel, eventually creating a cavity. So, when we give plaque the conditions it needs to thrive, cavities can form.
Plaque flourishes when we eat sugary, starchy, and acidic foods and stop brushing and flossing diligently. The longer plaque sits on your teeth, the longer the acids inside it can attack your enamel. Your enamel is the protective layer of your tooth, and once acid has worn through that important layer, it can dig deeper into your tooth to cause cavities.
Saliva is a key player in maintaining a healthy, cavity-free mouth. Saliva helps protect your teeth from tooth decay, but it can’t do the job alone. If you neglect your oral hygiene, there’s only so much plaque your saliva can handle.
Can Braces Cause Cavities?
Braces don’t directly cause cavities. But braces do make cleaning your teeth more complicated, which can result in cavities. Since braces are affixed to your teeth, they provide more places for plaque to accumulate.
Committing to braces treatment requires committing to a more complex oral care routine. You’ll need to brush and floss to accommodate the brackets and wires attached to your teeth. If you don’t stay on top of your oral care during braces treatment, it may result in cavities—but that certainly won’t be directly caused by the braces.
How Can I Prevent Cavities During Braces Treatment?
Cavities aren’t inevitable—so you don’t need to surrender to a cavity-riddled mouth if you want to get braces. Let’s explore some preventative measures you can take to fend off cavities during braces treatment (and beyond).
Maintain Great Oral Hygiene
Brackets provide fantastic hiding places for plaque, and the wires make flossing a challenge. You’ll need to brush with fluoride toothpaste and floss your teeth after every meal.[ 2 ] Your orthodontist can give you brushing techniques that will help keep your brackets free from plaque.
There are ways to simplify flossing with braces. You can buy inexpensive “floss threaders,” specially designed to help you get the floss under your archwire and in between your teeth. This can help speed up the process that can otherwise feel a little painstaking. Talk to your orthodontist for other tips and tricks to make this process simpler. The easier it is to care for our teeth, the likelier we are to make it a habit.
Poor oral hygiene while you have braces can also lead to demineralization of the enamel around your brackets, which can cause permanent stains on the teeth.
Make Regular Dentist Appointments
Seeing your dentist every 6 months is essential for maintaining a healthy mouth.[ 2 ] Deep cleanings help remove any plaque you can’t reach. When plaque builds up, it becomes more difficult to remove with just a toothbrush.
Cavities can go undetected in the early stages because they don’t always cause pain right away. Regular dental appointments will allow your dentist to find tooth decay in its early stages and intervene before cavities form. Orthodontists may recommend that some braces patients get more frequent cleanings to stay on top of their oral hygiene and help avoid cavities.
Nutrition Awareness
Crunchy, sticky, and sugary foods like popcorn and caramel are off-limits with braces because they can break or damage your brackets and wires.[ 3 ] Broken hardware can potentially force emergency trips to your orthodontist, which could make your treatment longer and more expensive.
Most of these prohibited foods are the types of foods your plaque loves.[ 3 ] You’ve likely heard your dentist warn you about sugar. This is because sugar produces acid in your mouth, which wears through your tooth enamel.
Sugary, starchy, acidic foods make it harder for your saliva to remove plaque—making tooth decay more likely.[ 3 ] So there’s more than one reason to part with candy during and after braces treatment.
Whole, unprocessed, plant-based foods are your best bet for great oral hygiene.[ 3 ] These foods are fiber-rich and have a high water content, which requires more chewing and stimulates saliva production, keeping your mouth bacteria in check.
Do All Teeth Straightening Options Present This Risk?
All teeth straightening treatments require a certain level of personal responsibility to maintain great oral hygiene. That being said, not all teeth straightening treatments demand the same level of personal responsibility that braces do. If you’re not sure you can stick to the strict oral hygiene regimen that braces require, there are other options to explore.
Maintaining good oral hygiene can be simpler with removable clear aligners like Invisalign since you won’t have brackets or wires to clean around. You’ll need to brush and floss after meals and keep your aligners clean, but the process is much closer to your typical oral care routine.
Lingual braces are on the opposite side of the spectrum. These specialty braces are attached to the backs of your teeth, which provides total discretion but also creates oral hygiene complications. It’s much harder to thread floss through wires that are out of sight, and it’s harder to clean brackets that you can’t see.
All teeth straightening options require responsible oral hygiene habits. It’s all about finding which habits will make the most sense for your lifestyle.
Final Thoughts
Braces do not necessarily cause cavities, but they do make it harder to stay on top of your oral health. Getting a cavity during your treatment has more to do with your habits and hygiene than it does with the braces themselves. If you maintain excellent oral hygiene throughout your braces treatment, you’ll significantly decrease the risks of developing a cavity.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if a cavity goes untreated?
When left untreated, a cavity can break down the tooth further, leaving a deeper and deeper dent and making it more painful and complicated to treat. Depending on the severity, it can potentially lead to infection or tooth loss.
Can you see a cavity?
Cavities aren’t always visible, especially in the early stages. But as a cavity progresses, you may be able to see a change of color on your tooth—a spot of black, yellow, white, or any other color. See your dentist if you think you have a cavity so they can provide a filling if necessary.
Do cavities always hurt?
Cavities don’t always hurt in their early stages. This is partly why regular dental appointments are so important—to catch tooth decay early before it progresses.
Is it true that I can’t eat certain foods during braces treatment?
Orthodontists strongly advise against eating especially crunchy, sticky, or chewy foods during braces treatment. These foods can damage your brackets and wires, potentially requiring extra appointments and delaying progress. If popcorn is what’s holding your life together, clear aligners may be a better teeth straightening treatment for you. With clear aligner treatment, you won’t have to change your diet—you’ll just need to take out your aligners at meals.
Do other teeth straightening treatments require me to give up certain foods?
Clear aligner treatment doesn’t require you to give up any foods, since you’ll remove your aligners when you eat. However, if you’re worried about cavities, it may be worth limiting some of these foods anyway, since they make you more cavity-prone.
How do I know if I have a cavity?
Some good indicators that you might have a cavity are tooth pain or soreness, as well as sensitivity to hot or cold. Depending on where your cavity is located, it can also cause swelling in your gums. A dentist will be the best judge of whether or not you have a cavity.
Are some people more cavity-prone than others?
Genes are part of what determines your enamel structure, so some people may be genetically predisposed to have softer enamel, and therefore more prone to getting cavities. Most studies show that diet and oral hygiene are more predictable causes of tooth decay than genetics.
Which is worse for my teeth: black coffee or soda?
Soda is far worse for your teeth than coffee. Black coffee stains your teeth, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad for your health. Soda is filled with sugar, which clings to your teeth, strengthening plaque and exhausting your saliva.
Can I get a cavity filled during braces treatment?
Though orthodontists recommend getting your cavities filled prior to getting braces, in most cases it’s still possible to fill a cavity during treatment. The severity and location of your cavity will affect whether or not your orthodontist will need to remove any brackets or wires for your filling.
Join The Discussion: