Emergency Care
True orthodontic emergencies are very rare, but when they do occur we are available to you. After office hours an emergency contact phone number is available on our answering machine. As a general rule, you should call the office when you experience severe pain or when you have a painful appliance problem that you can't take care of yourself. We will schedule an appointment to take care of the discomfort or pain right away. An additional appointment may need to be made to correct the problem (rebond loose bracket, recement loose band, replace broken archwire, etc). Since our popular after school appointment times are typically filled several weeks in advance, the appointment to correct the problem may need to be scheduled in the morning or early afternoon.
You might be surprised to learn that you may be able to temporarily solve many problems yourself until you schedule an appointment with our office. When working with your appliances, you need to know the names of the parts of your appliances so you are able to identify what part is broken or out of place. After alleviating your discomfort, it is very important that you still call our office as soon as possible to schedule a time to repair the problem. Allowing your appliance to remain damaged for an extended period of time may result in disruptions in your treatment plan.
The following solutions may help you relieve your discomfort:
Poking Wire
Using a pencil eraser, push the poking wire down or place wax on it to alleviate the discomfort.
Loose Bracket or Band
If your bracket or band is still attached to the wire, you should leave it in place and put wax on it. Please call our office to schedule an appointment to have the bracket or band replaced.
Loose Wire
Using tweezers, try to place your wire back into place and/or place wax on the end of wire. If unable to get the wire back into place, please call our office. If doing this and using wax doesn’t help and you can not get in touch with our office, as a last resort use a small fingernail clipper to clip the wire behind the last tooth to which it is securely fastened.
Loose Appliance
If your appliance is poking you, place wax on the offending part of your appliance.
Headgear Does Not Fit
Sometimes headgear discomfort is caused by not wearing the headgear as instructed by your orthodontist. Please refer to the instructions provided by your orthodontist. Surprisingly, the headgear may hurt less if it’s worn more, so be sure you’re getting in the prescribed hours. If the facebow is bent, please call our office for assistance.
General Soreness
When you get your braces on, your teeth may be tender to biting pressures for three to five days. Discomfort to the teeth can be reduced by taking what you normally would take for a headache or similar pain.
The lips, cheeks, and tongue may also become irritated for one to two weeks as they toughen and become accustomed to the surface of the braces. You can put wax on the braces to lessen this. Also, rinsing your mouth with a warm salt water mouthwash may help. Dissolve one teaspoonful of salt in 8 ounces of warm water and rinse your mouth vigorously. Placing Orabase on the affected area may help; this can be found in a pharmacy. If this concern does not improve in several days, call our office for an appointment.