Best Kinds of Gum When Wearing Braces or Aligners

When you get braces or aligners, you’re often faced with a long list of restrictions, such as avoiding hard candy, carbonated drinks, and usually gum, as they can damage your aligners and harm your teeth. However, gum can actually offer some significant benefits. Here are the best types of gum for your teeth:

Sugarfree Gum

Sugar-free gum is much better for your teeth. Sugar causes cavities, so sugar-free is much healthier. Without sugar, gum is less sticky and less likely to ruin your braces or aligners. As a bonus, sugar-free gum usually has fewer calories too. Some of the best sugar-free gum brands include Pür, XyloBurst, Xylitol, Peppersmith, Glee Gum, and Orbit.

Gum with Xylitol

Generally, you should opt for cinnamon or mint flavors, since sweet and fruit-flavored gum usually contains citric acids that are harsh on your tooth enamel. But if you do have a craving for something sweet, make sure your gum has xylitol as an ingredient. Xylitol is a sweetener from sugar alcohol that has all the flavor and none of the disadvantages.

Gum with the ADA seal

Get gum that has the American Dental Association seal, which means it has been tested for safety and efficacy.

Other benefits of chewing gum

If you get the right kind of gum, you can have a lot of benefits to your oral health. Here are just some of them:

• Gum gets rid of extra bacteria in your mouth my stimulating saliva
• Chewing gum strengthens tooth enamel, especially if the gum includes casein phosphopeptide-amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP-ACP)
• Certain kinds of gum can even whiten your teeth by getting rid of plaque

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