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I Don’t Have Any Dental Problem: Should I Still Visit and Orthodontist

You’ve gotten a clean bill of health from your dentist, but does that mean there are no more oral health issues that can trip you up? No. Even if your teeth are strong, it is a good idea to check with a specialist to ensure that that your teeth are aligned correctly.

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Life is too short not to smile. Smile as much as you can. ― Steve Imig 1

Life is too short not to smile. Smile as much as you can. ― Steve Imig

smile

Life is too short not to smile. Smile as much as you can. ― Steve Imig

Modern life may seem to come with its fair share of disappointments and negative scenarios. No one is ever going to live a perfect life that is void of any sadness; however, that doesn’t mean they must constantly express sorrow on their faces. Teaching your children the power of smiling can help them to live more fulfilling lives starting from the nascent stages of their existence.

Self Pride

Sometimes, kids want to hide their smiles once they have braces. However, modern braces are different. Whether your children have Invisalign or another type, the orthodontist can select a set that is right for them. Kids do not need to feel as though they must shirk away from their friends once they have these devices on their teeth. Instead, they can wear them with pride. When they walk around with a sense of pride, this positive vibe can start to spill into their work.

Emulating Joy

In a world where many negative scenarios happen on a regular basis, some people find it hard to find joy. Even kids can feel affected from the negative happenings around them. When you teach your kids how to smile, however, their entire beings can start to feel happier. Even when something negative has happened, feeling entirely bad with a huge grin on is a difficult task. Your kids can use their new smiles from Invisalign to boost their own moods.

Inspiring Others

Your kids might generally feel happy and pleased with their lives, and they may not smile because they are content with how they feel on the inside. In addition to encouraging them to display the progress their teeth have made from their orthodontist appointments, you can also tell the that a smile might make someone else feel better.

Fix Your Smile Today

Contact Gorton & Schmohl Orthodontics today to set up your consultation. There’s no reason to put off a visit to our helpful team of professionals. It is our goal to help you make the most of your smile.

Dr. Jasmine Gorton

Dr. Bill Schmohl

When your teeth are aligned properly and your jaw is flowing smoothly, you will find more reasons to flash those pearly whites every day. Let Gorton & Schmohl Orthodontics be your partner in good oral hygiene.

Gorton & Schmohl Orthodontics
900 Larkspur Landing Circle, Suite 200, Larkspur, California 94939 415-459-8006

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How to Maintain Your Braces

Metal Braces

How to Maintain Your Braces

Braces are something that many people use to get a more beautiful, straighter smile. But while braces are designed to provide minimal hassle to the wearer on their journey to the smile of their dreams, you can’t exactly continue to live your life as you did before your braces went on. Braces require upkeep and care if you want them to perform to their highest efficiency.

But what exactly do you need to do differently when wearing braces? What is the correct way to maintain your braces?

Oral Hygiene and Your Braces

We all know that oral hygiene is important. Proper brushing and flossing keeps bacteria in the mouth to a minimum and can prevent tooth decay or gum disease. But when you have braces, the need for proper oral hygiene habits can increase.

Braces provide more spaces and crevices for food to get stuck in. They can make it more difficult for our toothbrush to reach the area around or gums and flossing can be a hassle with the metal bars in the way. Furthermore, the metal of the braces can cause a bleaching reaction on the teeth if not properly taken care of. If you want your braces to be removed to reveal a beautiful smile, you’ll need to properly clean your teeth, the area between your braces, and the gaps between your teeth.

Although proper oral hygiene habits can be slightly difficult with braces, they are still incredibly important – possibly even more so. Talk with your orthodontist about the best way to clean between your braces or if they have special tools to help remove all the unwanted food and bacteria.

Listen to Your Orthodontist

With each visit to your orthodontist, you will probably be given more or a new set of instructions on how to maintain your braces. This may include the use of rubber bands or other additional items created to help give you the results you’re after.

Take your orthodontist’s instructions seriously and follow through with everything you are told. While the extra step of care may seem unnecessary to you, it is a crucial step to ensuring your braces are doing their job and that they are staying on schedule.

Your orthodontist may also give you advice on how to better take care of your braces, such as new ways to clean them or recommendations for getting in hard to reach areas. While you may think your orthodontist is just being overly precautious because it is their job, they do know best.

Follow a Braces-Friendly Diet

Maintaining your braces can also come from eating a diet that won’t do damage to your teeth or the braces themselves. This usually means avoiding things that are high in sugar, high in acidity, or extremely sticky or tacky items that may pull some of your braces right from your teeth – a problem that is a hassle for everyone involved.

High sugar foods, such as sodas and candy, increase your risk of developing tooth decay. While sugar should be avoided with or without braces, because your braces make it more difficult to efficiently clean your teeth, you’re more likely to leave bits of sugar behind. If the sugar is not properly removed, your teeth may experience the consequences.

Highly acidic foods can damage your tooth enamel. Like sugar, your braces can make it difficult to remove the food completely from your teeth. While you have your braces on, it is best to stick to foods with low acidity, including bananas, milk, water, and eggs.

Choose a Mouth Guard

Playing a high contact sport with braces can cause damage to your braces, teeth, and mouth if you’re not properly protected. If you should be hit in the mouth by a ball or other player, you could break your braces, cut your mouth on the metal of the braces, or even cause damage to your teeth.

The use of a mouth guard can help protect you and your braces from any flying balls or flailing limbs. While a mouth guard purchased at a sports store would be better than nothing, a custom made mouth guard from your orthodontist can provide the best level of protection and comfort.

Not all sports would require a mouth guard. If you are involved in low contact sports such as swimming, cross country, or certain track events, you may not need a mouth guard even if you have braces. However, players of high impact sports, including football, soccer, and hockey should definitely use a mouth guard for protection.

Your braces are there to give you the smile you’ve always dreamed of having, but in order to get there, you need to put in the work to maintain them and keep your teeth healthy. With proper cleaning, protection, and care, you can have your braces removed on time to reveal a beautiful and healthy smile underneath.

Fix Your Smile Today

Contact Gorton & Schmohl Orthodontics today to set up your consultation. There’s no reason to put off a visit to our helpful team of professionals. It is our goal to help you make the most of your smile.

Dr. Jasmine Gorton

Dr. Bill Schmohl

When your teeth are aligned properly and your jaw is flowing smoothly, you will find more reasons to flash those pearly whites every day. Let Gorton & Schmohl Orthodontics be your partner in good oral hygiene.

Gorton & Schmohl Orthodontics
900 Larkspur Landing Circle, Suite 200, Larkspur, California 94939 415-459-8006

Do Braces Make the Roots of Your Teeth Shorter? 2

Do Braces Make the Roots of Your Teeth Shorter?

makeupPeople are often concerned about root shortening (root resorption) when it comes to braces and Invisalign. With the use of modern orthodontic techniques, it is highly unlikely for a patient to experience any significant root resorption.

The Basics of Resorption

Research shows that for orthodontic patients, only 2% of them will finish treatment with root resorption that the eye can detect on an xray. Other studies indicate that some people are genetically more prone to root shortening. Other contributing factors can be a very long time in braces, pushing the teeth too hard, or trying to push the teeth too fast in the absence of acceleration techniques. Fortunately, a tooth can often withstand a significant amount of root resorption without having any long term symptoms. The literature reports that a root can lose as much as half of its length without having any impact on the person. Even people genetically predisposed to root shortening typically don’t lose more than 1/4 of the root length. That means that even though it is visible on the xrays, it is not a medical problem.

To minimize the incidence of root resorption, Drs Gorton & Schmohl focus on optimizing the treatment timing for each patient, to avoid having the braces on too long, they use the latest technology in gentle wires to move the teeth to keep the forces gentle, and they only move teeth more quickly if they have changed the surrounding environment with proven acceleration techniques such as Acceledent, Biolux, and/or PROPEL / microperforation. At the time of this writing, board certified Drs Jasmine Gorton and Bill Schmohl are the only orthodontic practice in the area offering all 3 of these innovative techniques to improve efficiency without increasing the concern about root resorption (as evidenced in our before and after records).

Fix Your Smile Today

Contact Gorton & Schmohl Orthodontics today to set up your consultation. There’s no reason to put off a visit to our helpful team of professionals. It is our goal to help you make the most of your smile.

Dr. Jasmine Gorton

Dr. Bill Schmohl

When your teeth are aligned properly and your jaw is flowing smoothly, you will find more reasons to flash those pearly whites every day. Let Gorton & Schmohl Orthodontics be your partner in good oral hygiene.

Gorton & Schmohl Orthodontics
900 Larkspur Landing Circle, Suite 200, Larkspur, California 94939 415-459-8006