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As the school year gets under way in Ypsilanti, MI, you’ve got a lot going on. New classes. New teachers. New activities. New books and supplies and . . . well, it’s a lot! If orthodontic treatment is one of those new experiences, we have some suggestions to help you enjoy the year with a confident smile.

You may not have realized it, but the skill sets you’ve developed for school are useful beyond the classroom—you can use those same skills to help you achieve your orthodontic goals. If you’re going to school with braces, aligners, or appliances for the first time, this orthodontic study guide will help you maintain a healthy, stress-free smile:

Do Your Homework

Oral hygiene is more important than ever when you’re in orthodontic treatment. Plaque and food particles collect around braces and fixed appliances. If you’ve been brushing at home twice a day for two minutes and flossing once a day, good work! But now it’s time to level up your cleaning routine.

While you’re in treatment, you might need to brush and floss more often, whether several times a day or after each meal or snack. Follow Dr. Betsy Meade’s recommendations for brushing and flossing to help keep your smile cavity free.

The right tools will make life easier. Special brushes, flosses, and rinses designed for orthodontics can make cleaning your teeth easier and more effective. Electric toothbrushes and water flossers can be a game changer when it comes to removing plaque and food particles from tricky spaces. Talk to your orthodontist to learn the best tools and techniques for home care.

Essential Supplies

Put together a kit for your backpack or locker so you’ll always have the orthodontic supplies you need on hand. These tools will help you manage any expected—and unexpected—challenges while you’re away from home. Depending on your type of treatment, your kit might include:

• Travel toothbrush in a ventilated case (bacteria aren’t fans of fresh air!)
• Travel size toothpaste
• Orthodontic floss and interproximal brushes (for stubborn food particles around brackets and wires)
• Small mirror to make sure your smile and braces are food-free
• Dental wax to prevent irritation from loose wires or brackets
• Extra rubber bands for those who use them
• Your appliance case to prevent damaging or losing your retainer or aligners
• Your orthodontist’s phone number for emergencies

Add any other items you think will be helpful, and you’ll be prepared to handle any orthodontic-related issues throughout the day.

Follow Directions

Your orthodontist’s treatment plan is carefully designed to make your beautiful, healthy smile a reality as soon as possible—and the plan works best when you follow it!

• Wear your aligners, appliances, or elastics for the recommended number of hours each day. That’s the quickest way to a healthier smile.
• If you wear braces, see Dr. Betsy Meade for regularly scheduled adjustments.
• If you wear aligners, follow your orthodontist’s schedule each time you change trays. Changing to a new set of aligners too soon can cause stressful pressures on your teeth and jaws. Changing trays too late can delay your progress.

Any Questions? Ask!

Asking questions is one of the best ways to learn. Your orthodontic team has years of education and experience to help you answer some of the questions you have about navigating your school day.

Which cafeteria foods are orthodontic-friendly? Can you play a brass or wind instrument in band? If you play school sports, how do you wear a mouthguard with braces?

Your orthodontic team at Meade Orthodontics has the answers—or knows how to help you find them. Work with your team to make sure that you’re able to enjoy all the possibilities of the school year, from classroom to lunchroom to extracurriculars, with a healthy confident smile!

Your teeth are precious. Once your permanent teeth come in, they need to last you a lifetime. Extensive tooth decay can lead to dental caries and the need for fillings, crowns, bridges, and dentures.

While these fixes can go a long way toward maintaining your quality of life, they cannot compare to your natural teeth. Getting braces is no excuse to let up on your thorough oral health routine: You need to take good care of your teeth before, during, and after braces to benefit completely from the gains you get from newly straightened teeth.

Why You Should Maintain Good Oral Health for Life

Begin a complete oral health regimen as early as possible in life, and maintain this routine throughout your life. Keeping your (or your child’s baby) teeth clean establishes a routine. It preserves healthy baby teeth whose function is to save space for the permanent teeth when they are ready to come in. Care of your permanent teeth helps preserve the enamel and prevent decay.

Take Special Care with Braces

It is important to pay attention to oral health when you have braces. If you do not take special care of your teeth during the months or years that you have braces, you risk irreversible damage to your teeth. Care is more difficult with braces because food can easily get stuck. In addition to brushing twice daily and flossing each day, Dr. Betsy Meade and our staff suggest avoiding sticky foods.

Nobody likes bad breath, and although it can sometimes be difficult to tell if you have it, it is always better to practice good oral health than risk having a smelly mouth. There are many ways to reduce or eliminate bad breath, some are definitely more effective and longer lasting than others. Check out ways to do so below.

Floss Regularly

As difficult as it can be to remember to floss regularly, when it comes to bad breath, flossing is one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to freshen your mouth. See, flossing reduces the plaque and bacteria found in areas of your mouth that a toothbrush simply can't reach, and in turn, it rids your mouth of the smell associated with that bacteria. While flossing may not eliminate bad breath on its own, if you do it along with other health oral hygiene habits like brushing, then you may just develop a fresher smelling mouth.

Use Mouthwash

Using some sort of mouthwash can really freshen up your breath, especially if you find it still smells after brushing and flossing. There is a wide variety of mouthwash products on the market, however, you can also create your own by simply using baking soda mixed with water.

Always Brush after You Sleep

Whether after taking a nap, or having a full night of sleep, you will want to brush your teeth in order to reduce bad breath. The truth is, bacteria accumulates in your mouth while you are sleeping (even during a short nap) and that is ultimately the source of bad breath. So next time you wake from a good slumber, give your mouth some brushing and you will find it makes a big difference in the freshness of your breath.

There are many ways to freshen your breath beyond just using gum or mints, the above mentioned are just a few for you to try. Test them out and you will likely find your bad breath problem is solved, or at least considerably reduced. Of course, you can always ask Dr. Betsy Meade at your next visit to our Ypsilanti, MI office.

By now, you’re very familiar with the basic building blocks of your braces. Brackets, wires, and ligatures are no mystery to you. But suddenly, you’re hearing a brand new term—“power chains.” What exactly are these power chains, and why does your orthodontist think you need them? Let’s see how power chains are *linked* to your orthodontic treatment.

• First, why power chains?

They’re not really chains in the necklace or bike chain sense—in fact, they’re only very rarely made with metal. These chains are most often a string of O ring loops just like your elastic ligatures, attached in a row to resemble a chain.

Chain lengths are tailored to your specific needs. Dr. Betsy Meade will attach each individual loop in the chain around a single bracket, linking selected teeth together. Chains might stretch across a few teeth, several teeth, or your entire upper or lower arch.

• Second, why power chains?

Because these chains are usually made of the same elastics that your ligatures, or bands, are made from, they want to hold their original shape. They will try to return to that original shape even as they are stretched between your brackets. As they contract, they help move your teeth together. 

Over time, just like an over-stretched rubber band, they lose their elasticity, and won’t work as effectively. That’s why you’ll probably get a new power chain whenever you come in to our Ypsilanti, MI office for an adjustment.

• Third, why power chains?

This is the most important question. How can a power chain improve your smile?

Usually, power chains become part of your treatment after the first phase of alignment. They can be used to help align your teeth or correct your bite, but are most often used to close gaps between the teeth.

You might have a gap after a tooth has been extracted. Or, as your teeth move into their new positions, you might suddenly see noticeable spaces between them. Power chains move the teeth closer together to eliminate these gaps, and do it more quickly than brackets and wires alone can do.

• How long will you need them?

This is something Dr. Betsy Meade will discuss with you. Whether it’s a matter of weeks or months, your treatment plan is designed to move your teeth into their best positions, and to do it carefully for a lasting, healthy alignment.

• Power chain options

Depending on the size and spacing of your teeth and your treatment plan, these chains usually take one of three forms: closed/continuous, short, and long. The only difference is the distance between the rings.

We will choose the type of chain that’s best for your treatment. Your contribution is to personalize your power chain. Power chains come in a rainbow of colors, allowing you to mix and match. You can even coordinate with your ligatures if you have ties as well as chains. If your goal is to have your braces blend in, various shades of white, silver, or clear colors are available. Want to mix things up? Choose a different color with every adjustment.

• Anything else?

You might experience some discomfort for the first few days with a new power chain, just as you might with any adjustment. Dr. Betsy Meade will have suggestions for making those first days as comfortable as possible.

Also, like brackets and ligatures, power chains can trap food particles, so be sure to follow our instructions for keeping your teeth and your braces their cleanest.

Now that you’re all caught up on what power chains are and what they can do for you, let’s mention one more benefit. This is a process where you can actually see the gaps between your teeth closing over the weeks you wear your power chains. Keep a selfie record of your progress as you create your beautiful, healthy smile. That’s an em*power*ing experience!