Are Your Braces Causing You Pain? 4 Tips for Feeling Better

If you wear braces, you're familiar with how they can feel uncomfortable after they are tightened. These adjustments are needed to help align your teeth in the proper position, and the associated pain from the adjustments is normal. Adjustments are made by bending or tightening the wire on your braces, as this puts pressure on your teeth. If you want to lessen the pain that you are feeling, here are four techniques you can use.

Use Ice Packs

Ice will help reduce any pain that you are feeling in your jaw as well as alleviate swelling. If you don't have an ice pack, make one on your own. Just fill a plastic bag with some ice and place the ice next to your jaw or cheek area where the discomfort is emanating from. If the ice pack is too cold for you, wrap it up in a towel or washcloth and periodically remove it when it feels too cold. Be aware that keeping something that is too cold on your skin can damage it.

Use Oral Numbing Medication

There are products that you can purchase over the counter that will numb your gums and help the area temporarily feel better. While some products are made for adults, other are even safe for babies to use while teething. Apply some to a cotton swab or your finger and apply the numbing medication where you are feeling discomfort. Keep in mind that this medication can easily get on other places in your mouth when applying it, like your tongue. Try to keep your tongue away from the area when the medication is being used

Drink Ice Water

Ice works to alleviate the pain, and you can take advantage of this by slowly sipping on ice water. Use some ice to make the water very cold, and take slow sips that you swish around in the area that is experiencing discomfort.

Use Pain Relievers

If you cannot get prescription pain relievers to deal with the discomfort, take an over-the-counter drug like ibuprofen. Make sure to follow the recommended dosage, and you'll safely relieve some of the pain.

Having braces tightened will cause soreness for a couple days, but things will eventually return to normal. If you continue to feel soreness, be sure to reach out to a dentist such as Richard M Holmes DMD PA. They can gives you more advice or have you come back to the orthodontist to get the braces readjusted.

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