Partrick Orthodontics :: Life with Braces

Life with Braces

Foods

You probably already know, while you have braces on your teeth, there are some foods we ask you to avoid. This is mostly because these foods can break off the braces. If your braces are broken, it requires an additional appointment to put them back on your teeth. We’ll give you a list of foods we’d like you to steer clear of, but the quick summary involves sticky foods (taffy, carmels), hard foods (chips, ice crunching) and gum. Even sugarless gum can cause braces to come off of teeth, so we’ll ask you to chew all the gum you have before you get started, so you won’t miss chewing it when you have you braces put on!

Moving teeth

Because we are moving teeth, they get sore. It’s a lot of work when teeth move in bone!! Most patients are uncomfortable for 2-3 days after we put braces on, but then they improve. Two years is about the length of time it takes to get most people’s teeth to an awesome smile. Depending on what your dental problems are before you started at Partrick Orthodontics, the time you spend in braces may be less or may be more.

Bands, brackets and wires

A band is a metal “ring” that fits around your back teeth. We use a special high-tech glue to painlessly attach the bracket to your tooth. You will get new wires occasionally to move your teeth while you’re in orthodontics. Often we start with small round wires and eventually you will get wires that are bigger. The bigger the wire, the closer you are to being finished with orthodontics!!


Orthodontic Bands	Orthodontic Bands on Teeth	Brackets on Teeth

How to maintain your braces and teeth while you’re in orthodontics

We always want to emphasize clean teeth and good habits. Before you start orthodontics, we want to be confident that you’re good at the difficult job of good dental hygiene. It’s one of the most important things we do and we’ll talk about it often. We’ll show you how to keep your braces and your teeth clean. We’ll talk with you about what a good job you’re doing at every appointment! We want to help you keep good hygiene habits. We also want you to have sparkling teeth and a beautiful smile when you’re done with braces!!

Playing sports and other activities

What kinds of activities are you involved in? We want to hear about your team or group that you play sports with! When you’re playing sports or any strenuous activity that involves near-misses with teeth, we urge you (adults and children) to wear mouth guards (even if you’re not currently wearing braces)!! While you have braces on your teeth, we will give you a mouth guard to wear. The best way to protect your cheeks, face and teeth from injury is a mouth guard. We want you to wear one every time you’re out enjoying sports like football, skateboarding, basketball, and many more fun activities!! Mouth guards are a great way to protect your beautiful face! When you’re 90 years old and have all your teeth, you’ll be happy you wore your mouth guard!

After Hours care

Broken bracket or loose wire - Some patients do have brackets come “unglued” from their teeth. It would be great if no brackets ever came away from the tooth, but sometimes they do. Occasionally wires or different pieces feel loose or different. If you think this might be happening to you, we want to see you. We want to hear from you if something doesn’t feel “like it used to” so we can make it right, but it may never happen to you. Call us the minute you notice a change, so we can bring you in to take a look.
Have you misplaced your invisible aligner? Or maybe you’ve put your aligner in some hot water (which melts it)? We can help you with that too. Get in touch so we can give you instructions.

Discomfort

A few hours after we put your braces on (the first day), your braces may be uncomfortable. Usually this tenderness only lasts 2-3 days. On the second day most people feel better. Typically what you might take for a headache will help you feel better. We always want to know how your first few days with braces felt, but more importantly, if you have more pain than this soreness the first few days, we want to know this as well.
So far scientists haven’t invented a pain-free way to move teeth. Even though it is not quite as quick and easy and as pain-free as everyone would like, we want to keep you as happy and as comfortable as possible during your time with Partrick Orthodontics.