During the first week of treatment, you may notice sores or ulcerations inside your mouth. This can happen because your lips and cheeks are not yet used to rubbing against your orthodontic braces. Over time, your skin on the inside of your mouth will get tougher and you will not have sores anymore. To provide some relief for your lips and cheeks rubbing against your rough braces, you can place a small pea-sized amount of wax or bubble gum on the area of the braces that is causing the sore or ulceration. The sore should improve within a couple of days and completely heal within a week. If the sore or ulceration does not improve or gets worse, call us to have it examined.

During treatment, flexible wires may slip out of the bracket slots of the back teeth. This may be avoided by eating the appropriate foods your orthodontist recommends. If the wire comes out of the tube, try placing the wire back in the tube using tweezers. If necessary, cover the loose wire with wax and call the office for an appointment.

Occasionally, metal wires are used to tie the archwire to the brackets or bands. Sometimes during eating or brushing, this metal wire tie can accidentally be redirected and start to cause irritation to your lips or cheeks. You can try to push the poky wire back into place by using the end of a pencil eraser. If that is not possible, you can place wax on the area causing the irritation until you can be seen by your orthodontist to have it fixed.

Screws from the Herbst appliance usually come loose due to excessive opening of the jaw (like yawning). Excessive opening strains the screw head causing it to become loose. If this happens you can still eat (just be careful with the loose rod). Please call us to replace the screw. Replacing the screw is a very simple process (hard to do at home because it requires a miniature Allen wrench).

If an accident occurs during treatment involving the teeth, call us or your dentist iimmediately.