Emergency Care
In the event of a traumatic injury to your face and mouth, please proceed immediately to the nearest hospital emergency room or urgent care facility. If a direct injury to the mouth and/or teeth occurs, call your family dentist's office as soon as possible. Typically, an x-ray of the involved part of the mouth and/or teeth is necessary to determine the extent of the injury. If your orthodontic appliances have been damaged, we will need to see you to make any necessary repairs after your family dentist has evaluated the tooth or teeth involved in the injury. If you are unable to reach your family dentist, please call our office as soon as possible for assistance.
As a general rule, you should call our office when you experience severe pain or when you have a painful orthodontic appliance problem that you can't easily take care of yourself. We want to make sure you're comfortable and we'll be able to schedule an appointment to resolve the problem.
You might be surprised to learn that you may be able to temporarily solve many problems yourself until you schedule an appointment with our office. When working with your appliances, you need to know the names of the parts of your appliances so you are able to identify what part is broken or out of place (please visit our Orthodontic Dictionary and/or Braces Diagram page on this website). Even if you are able to alleviate the 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 in your treatment plan and an increase in your treatment time.
PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CALL OUR OFFICE IF YOU ARE HAVING A PROBLEM OR IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION REGARDING YOU BRACES! We are here to help you and we want to make certain that you have an efficient and comfortable experience with braces. We will be happy to assist you in any way we can.
The following solutions may help you temporarily relieve your discomfort:
Poking Wire
Using a pencil eraser, push the poking wire down or place wax on it to alleviate the discomfort.
Loose Bracket or Band
If your bracket or band is still attached to the wire, you should leave it in place and put wax on it. If the band or bracket comes out entirely, wrap the band or bracket with a tissue and bring it with you to our office.
Loose Wire
Using a pair of tweezers, try to place your wire back into place. If doing this and using 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.
Loose Appliance
If a piece of your appliance becomes loose and is poking you, place wax on the offending part of the appliance.
Headgear Does Not Fit
Sometimes headgear discomfort is caused by not wearing the headgear as instructed by Dr. Bomeli. Please refer to the instructions provided by Dr. Bomeli and our team. If the facebow is bent, please call our office for assistance. Surprisingly, the headgear may hurt less if it's worn more, so be sure you're getting in the prescribed hours.
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 a few days. This can be relieved by rinsing your mouth with a warm salt water mouthwash. Dissolve one teaspoonful of salt in 8 ounces of warm water and rinse your mouth vigorously. You may also use over-the-counter medication that you would normally take for a headache or similar pain as directed on the bottle. Your 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 discomfort. We'll show you how!
