Orthodontic treatment is both a financial investment and a time investment, so we completely understand when parents want to get the best results from their child’s braces or clear aligners. While our team aims to provide your child with excellent results, families need to do their part as well.
Follow Our Instructions
Our orthodontic services are highly advanced and effective at straightening teeth quickly and efficiently but they also require certain commitments from the patient. After all, they play a critical part in ensuring that their treatment plan stays on track!
If your child has conventional braces, they should avoid eating hard, crunchy, and sticky foods and biting into apples and corn on the cob. These can damage and break their brackets, which would require additional visits to our office and may prolong their treatment.
Patients with clear aligners should wear their clear aligners as often as possible, at least 20-22 hours a day. Not wearing your aligners can cause your treatment plan to be set back.
Your child needs to maintain a great oral hygiene routine during their orthodontic treatment. Doing so will prevent decay and gum disease. This involves brushing and flossing in the morning, anytime after eating, and before going to bed, and keeping their orthodontic appliances clean.
Keep Scheduled Appointments
At Farmington Dental and Orthodontics, we understand that our patients lead busy lives. However, orthodontic treatment requires occasional appointments with our team so that we can assess your child’s smile, make any necessary modifications to their braces or treatment plan, and answer any questions or address any concerns that they or you may have. While rescheduling is OK now and then, we encourage families to keep their appointments as much as possible so their child’s treatment plan stays on track.
Wearing Retainers
Once your child gets their braces off or completes their last set of clear aligners, we will create a custom retainer for them to wear to keep their teeth in place. We will provide instructions on how often your child should wear it. Wearing the retainer will help prevent their teeth from shifting and undoing all of the time and money spent on making their smile straight and symmetrical. Should they ever break or lose their retainer, please let our office know as soon as possible so we can get a new one made for them.
Please contact us with any questions about orthodontic treatment for you or your child!
Children with braces image from Authority Dental under CC 2.0
