How to care for teeth if you have braces or they’re crowded

So, this is how I would care for my teeth if I had crowded teeth, which actually I do, or braces. People get very worried that there's no space. They've got this idea that they have to clean physically between every tooth. And unless you're a child really with baby teeth that are spaced out, most of us our teeth are tight together. It's how they are, it's how they're supposed to be. And tight teeth it's not a problem, don't worry about it. Wherever the saliva goes, it will go. I mean, it will go between teeth, trust me, even if your teeth are closely lined up. They're not bone dry between them. Your saliva is able to slide through, even if it's a tiny little film right between those teeth. And this is why cleaning your teeth, or cleaning around braces, you've got to understand something that I have said before, but I think it's worth repeating. As you eat anything that is sugary, anything with a sugar in it, and that includes fruits, it includes obviously candies, cookies, and drinks with sugars in them. It also includes carbohydrates, which would be crackers. Any kind of cracker, breads, potatoes, pasta, any carbohydrate will break down into sugars in your mouth. There are enzymes in your mouth that break down carbohydrates. So, the digestion occurs in your mouth. So, now you got all these sugars. What happens to those sugars? They don't stick like particles of food on your teeth. They dissolve instantly in the liquid of your mouth. So, the problem is not particles of food stuck. That's the real danger. The real danger is your sugary liquid in your mouth that circulates — everywhere. You can't floss away a sugary liquid. And if you do, more sugary liquid will come right afterwards. So, how do you deal with that? Well, you deal with it ideally by eating something at the end of your meal that is tooth protective. There are even tooth protective foods that taste sugary, like a strawberry or raspberry, or xylitol in any way, shape, or form. It tastes sweet and delicious. And strawberries and raspberries, by the way, they work because they contain xylitol. But you could also have celery, you could have an apple, you could have There are a number of tooth protective foods. End your meal with that. And they will kind of stimulate saliva and change the flow in your mouth to be saliva that doesn't have all those sugars in it. You can have a rinse of water in your mouth, that's great, too. But I would ideally say after that, have some xylitol. Because it's going to stimulate a great big flow of really well mineralized liquid, your saliva, into your mouth, and that is going to heal any damage done by the sugars.