Can I Kiss While Wearing Braces?

With hundreds of patients streaming into our offices every week, you’d be surprised at the questions we sometimes get. One common question (that you may not dare ask) is this: can you kiss while wearing braces? This can be a big concern for people of all ages who are getting braces, whether they’re 13 or 33.

You probably hear stories about people getting their braces stuck while kissing. While these stories are highly amusing—or even frightening!—they aren’t very common. It would take some tricky mouth work (and possibly some broken bands) to get two people’s braces to snag on each other and get stuck together.

Your parent’s generation may really have had to worry about this. The braces of 20 or 30 years ago were much larger and more cumbersome. They had larger brackets, thicker wires, and rougher edges. This made it easier to snag your braces on a something, whether it’s a sweatshirt you’re pulling over your head or your girlfriend’s lip. In the last 10 years, braces have soared ahead of where they were in the past due in part to advancements in technology. The brackets and wires that your braces are made of are much smaller than braces that were being used in the 80s and 90s. Smaller, smoother parts are much less likely to snag on anything.

Kissing with braces is not something you need to be afraid of. If it’s a first kiss though, or if you’ve had a few bumps already and feel stressed about it, it might help you calm your nerves to smile and remember the following hints until you get your braces off.

Tips on Kissing With Braces

• Start slow. This is important with any first kiss, but it’s more important if one or both parties are wearing braces. While it’s unlikely that your braces will snag on your girlfriend’s retainer, you might bump her lip with the wires, or snag her tongue, which might not give her the happy feelings you’re hoping to give her.
• Keep your mouth closed. This is particularly important if this is the first time you’ve kissed this person and you’re not used to each other yet.
• Ease off on lip pressure. Bringing your lips up to someone and landing a big smack may not bother your special someone at all. But, it might not be very comfortable for you, since the wires and brackets will press against your lips.
• Try using wax. You can put wax on particularly bumpy parts of your braces if you’ve found kissing cumbersome in the past. Try putting wax on just your front top teeth. Most people do fine without the wax, but you can try it if your girlfriend or boyfriend complains. Wax can also help if playing a musical instrument with braces.
• Keep your breath fresh. Many people worry about catching their braces on someone’s lip. What they don’t think to worry about is their breath. When you have braces, oral hygiene is more important than ever. There are more places for bits of food to stick, and that means you could get bad breath. Make sure you brush diligently and floss. You can carry around little disposable toothbrushes on dates and brush your teeth after eating to make sure you’re ready for that kiss.