All About Braces
Here are tips to life with braces and everything you need to know to help you complete treatment successfully at Szymanowski Orthodontics.
General Tips
What can you eat? Let’s talk about what you shouldn’t eat! For the first day or so, stick to soft foods. Avoid tough meats, hard breads, and raw vegetables.
You’ll need to protect your orthodontic appliances when you eat for as long as you’re wearing braces.
- Chewy foods: bagels, hard rolls, licorice
- Sticky foods: caramels, gummy bears, tootsie rolls
- Crunchy foods: popcorn, ice, chips
- Hard foods: nuts, candy
- Foods you have to bite into: corn on the cob, apples, carrots (cut into small pieces)
- Chewing on hard things (for example, pens, pencils or fingernails) can damage the braces. Damaged braces will cause treatment to take longer.
When wire is first applied to braces, some patients feel general soreness and teeth may be tender to biting pressures for three to five days.
This can be relieved by rinsing your mouth with a warm saltwater rinse. Dissolve one teaspoonful of salt in eight ounces of warm water, and rinse your mouth vigorously.
If the tenderness is severe, take ibuprofen or whatever you normally take for headache or similar pain.
The lips, cheeks and tongue may also become irritated as they toughen and become accustomed to the surface of the braces. You can put wax on the braces to lessen this. We’ll show you how!
If you play sports around Sacramento, it’s important that you consult us for special precautions. A protective mouth guard is advised for playing contact sports.
In case of any accident involving the face, check your mouth and the appliances immediately. If teeth are loosened or the appliances damaged, phone at once for an appointment at Szymanowski Orthodontics.
In the meantime, treat your discomfort as you would treat any general soreness.
For your treatment plan to be successful, you must work together with Dr. Szymanowski!
The teeth and jaws can only move toward their corrected positions if you consistently wear your rubber bands, or other appliances as prescribed. Damaged appliances lengthen the treatment time.
Common Issues & Solutions
What can you eat? Let’s talk about what you shouldn’t eat! For the first day or so, stick to soft foods. Avoid tough meats, hard breads, and raw vegetables.
You’ll need to protect your orthodontic appliances when you eat for as long as you’re wearing braces.
- Chewy foods: bagels, hard rolls, licorice
- Sticky foods: caramels, gummy bears, tootsie rolls
- Crunchy foods: popcorn, ice, chips
- Hard foods: nuts, candy
- Foods you have to bite into: corn on the cob, apples, carrots (cut into small pieces)
- Chewing on hard things (for example, pens, pencils or fingernails) can damage the braces. Damaged braces will cause treatment to take longer.
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The wires and bands on your braces may come loose. If this happens, please contact our Sacramento office as soon as possible so that we can check and repair your appliance. If any piece of your appliance comes off, be sure to save it and bring it to the office with you.
You can temporarily fix the loose wire using the back of a spoon or the eraser end of a pencil to carefully and gently push the wire back into place. If the loose wire causes irritation to your lips or cheeks, put wax or a wet cotton ball over the broken wire to relieve the pain.
Once your teeth adjust to treatment, they begin to move. When this happens, the archwire that connects them may also move, poking out a bit near the back of the mouth and irritating your cheeks.
You can often move this wire into a better position by using the pencil's eraser end or a cotton swab. You can manipulate any misplaced wires or ties back into place by gently using a pair of clean tweezers.
If some of the wires or brackets have shifted and irritate your mouth, you can use orthodontic wax to cover the parts that are poking out.
This will help ease the discomfort, but make sure you get in touch with our Sacramento office as soon as you can, so we can fix the actual problem instead of you only masking the symptoms at home.