After-Care Instructions: Wearing An Appliance

Patient cooperation is very important and essential to successful treatment. Full cooperation by patients insures a shorter treatment period with much greater assurance of better and more idealized result.

• Orthodontic appliances should be worn at all times except when eating, brushing teeth, or while participating in contact sports.
• Your appliance must be brushed and kept clean the same as your teeth. When brushing is not possible, for example at school, rinse your appliance and your mouth several times.
• Your appliance may make your saliva flow increase and cause you to have to swallow more at first.
• It may also be more difficult speaking at first. Practice reading aloud at home will help to correct this.

There may be some soreness during the first two to three days of wearing you appliance. As you adjust to the pressure on your teeth the discomfort will stop. It is important to keep your appliance in during this time to keep any discomfort to a minimum.

Please remember that there is a definite relationship between patient cooperation and success of treatment. If additional questions arise we will be happy to answer them for you.

Click here to download instructions as an Adobe Acrobat file.