Straightening your crooked teeth and solving your bite problems are not something that can be done in days. It’s not done in weeks either, but many months, even 2-3 years, depending on the severity of your case. This means you need to get ready for a long ride and have enough patience to successfully finish the treatment.
Your treatment means wearing some sort of an orthodontic device for as long as needed, plus many other bits and pieces that will come and go as your teeth get into the desired position. From now on you need to make sure you don’t make your orthodontics treatment even harder than it already is.
Clean that mouth!
If you weren’t too crazy about your oral hygiene, it’s time to change your attitude. All the stuff that’s in your mouth makes it now super-easy for cavities to appear. You’ve got braces and god knows what other stuff on your teeth. Clean them and make sure you still floss and keep your teeth as clean as possible. Being serious about this can make the difference between healthy teeth at the end of the treatment and teeth that are almost destroyed by cavities. It’s true you cannot have crystal clear teeth with all that junk on it, but, if you don’t brush and floss, you’d be shocked to see what can happen.
It won’t kill you to stay away from some food that would damage your orthodontics devices.
I know you like your chewing gum. If you’re an American, chewing this is almost a national sport. And you like your nuts and pistachios maybe. Or some good ole’ popcorn. Well, if it can damage your braces, just don’t eat it. I love green apples. Well, I don’t bite into them as I’d normally do, but cut them to small pieces or just bite carefully. During my entire treatment, I stayed away from almonds or anything that’s too tough to chew.
If it breaks, go to the orthodontist
If your brackets come loose or something is not OK, call your orthodontist and see if you can get an appointment. Don’t panic, most of the time brackets would come loose because they didn’t stick to the tooth correctly, and it’s something your doctor knows how to fix and expects all the time. Just make the call, see when you can meet and have it solved. It won’t be the first time or the last time something breaks, so don’t worry.
Don’t miss your appointments
If your orthodontist told you to come once a month or twice a month, don’t get smart and miss appointments. He’s the one to know how much attention your braces need and how frequent they need to be checked. While you’d love seeing your orthodontist once per treatment, when he takes off your braces, do follow the appointments calendar and make sure you’re not missing them.
If you have to wear it for 22 hours, then make sure you do
I’ve had people ask me “how much do I need to wear my Invisalign”, trying to see how much they can keep it off their teeth and still not mess the treatment. Well, you know, if it says “as much as possible, then wear it as much as possible. If you need to wear a device 10 hours/day, wear it 12, if you need to wear something over 20 hours, make sure it doesn’t get off unless you’re eating and brushing. It’s needed for your treatment, don’t mess it up just because you’re not feeling like wearing that.
You have to understand that everything is FOR YOUR GOOD and your orthodontics treatment can be a success and a failure and you’ve got a lot to decide on this. Do your part. Clean your teeth, wear your devices, don’t mess up your own treatment. Because it’s you who’s got to suffer.