Emergency Care
True orthodontic emergencies are rare, but when they occur we are available to you. As a general rule, you should call the office when you experience severe pain or have a painful appliance problem you can’t take care of yourself. We’ll be able to schedule an appointment to resolve the problem.
You might be surprised to learn you may be able to solve many problems temporarily by yourself until you arrive at a scheduled appointment with our office. When working with your appliances, you need to know the names of their parts so you can identify which 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 to your treatment plan.
General soreness
When you get your braces on, you may feel general soreness in your mouth, and teeth may be tender to biting pressures for three to five days. This can be relieved by rinsing your mouth with a warm salt-water mouthwash. Dissolve one teaspoonful of salt in eight 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 the tenderness is severe, take aspirin or whatever you normally take for 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. We’ll show you how!
Headgear
Sometimes headgear discomfort is caused by not wearing the headgear as instructed by your orthodontist. Please refer to the instructions provided by your orthodontist. If the facebow is bent, please call our office for assistance. The headgear should hurt less the more it is worn, so be sure you get in the prescribed number of hours.
Loose appliance
If your appliance is poking you, place wax on the offending part of it.
Loose bracket
If your bracket or band is still attached to the wire, you should leave it in place and put wax on it. If the wire comes out entirely, wrap the bracket with a tissue.
Loose wire
Using a pair of tweezers, try to put your wire back into place. If doing this and applying wax doesn’t help, as a last resort use a small fingernail clipper to clip the wire behind the last tooth to which it is securely fastened. If your discomfort continues, place wax on it.
Poking wire
Using a pencil eraser, push the poking wire down or place wax on it to alleviate the discomfort.
