Emergency Information
There are very few true orthodontic emergencies, and most problems can be remedied at home. However, if you have a situation that you cannot resolve, call our office as soon as possible so we can fit you in for a repair appointment. If your teeth are sore after a visit, you may take acetaminophen, ibuprofen or any other over-the-counter pain reliever. If your braces cause irritation, try moving the wire away from the irritated area with the eraser side of a pencil.
If the wire will not move, try covering the end of it with a small piece of orthodontic wax. If the wire is painful, you can cut it with nail clippers or scissors that have been washed and sterilized with alcohol. If the main wire or a bracket comes loose, call our office the next business day to see if the bracket needs to be replaced. If a separator comes out, call our office to see if it needs to be replaced. It is not uncommon for patients to lose a separator during treatment.
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Oral Hygiene
With braces on your teeth, it is even more important to maintain good oral hygiene. The braces and wires can make it more difficult to brush or floss away plaque and food particles, and failure to do so could result in puffy gums, white scars on the teeth or even cavities. Careful brushing and flossing, preferably after every meal, is the best way to prevent these problems.
Bite Turbos
Many patients have a bite in front that we call a “deep vertical overbite,” where your upper front teeth overlap your lower front teeth vertically more than they should. When we put braces on teeth with this type of bite, the upper teeth will run into the braces on the lower teeth and knock them off. To overcome this problem, we place bite turbos on the back of your upper front teeth, to act as a platform for the lower front teeth to bite on. Without bite turbos, it would take about six months of treatment to get the upper front teeth moved out of the way enough to put the lower braces on, so these little platforms save you about a half of a year of treatment!
Rubber Bands
For most orthodontic patients, rubber bands are needed to correct the bite and complete the orthodontic treatment. While braces and wires can be used to straighten your teeth, rubber bands are often necessary to move the upper and lower teeth relative to each other to fit them together ideally. It is critical that you wear the rubber bands as instructed, as any deviation from these rules will result in increased treatment time!
Expander
The expander appliance is used to orthopedically widen the upper jaw. Expanders are used to correct “crossbites” of the back and side teeth, and may also allow for the creation of more space into which permanent teeth can erupt. When the expander appliance is delivered, we give careful instructions so that appliance can be activated at home.
