It seems like we blinked, and summer was over! Although there’s technically another few weeks until the first official day of fall, school is back in session, which means we’ll be putting our sandals and shorts away before you know it. But before we drag our jackets out of the closet and start getting ready for Christmas (we only have another 100+ days….), this is the perfect time to discuss proper dental care during the school day with our patients who are in braces. This is an especially important overview for children who are returning to school for the first time since starting orthodontic treatment. Wearing braces at school doesn’t have to be difficult, but like any other new adventure, it comes with its own set of learning curves. Dr. Lee wants to help your child get through the first days of school smiling, so keep reading below for a few of our favorite tips on transitioning from summer to school with no stress!

Stay prepared

We always recommend that students in braces keep a basic care kit in their purse, backpack, or locker. This goes double for those who haven’t been wearing them for very long. Having a few common items close to hand can help prepare your child for any braces-related dilemma that might pop up during the school day. Some things they may want to include are:

• a soft-bristled toothbrush
• fluoride toothpaste
• dental floss
• orthodontic wax
• lip balm
• an unsharpened pencil

These items can be useful in a number of ways. Because brackets and wires have a tendency to trap food particles, we encourage brushing after lunch, with a quick floss added if needed, and if your child has the time. It’s not uncommon for the lips, gums, and cheeks to feel mild irritation from time to time, and orthodontic wax is an excellent way to reduce that and find some relief. All it takes is a pea-sized amount placed over the area causing problems. For wires that have strayed and are poking into the cheeks, the eraser end of a pencil can be used to nudge them back into place. Last but not least, lip balm is a must-have for lips that are dry and irritated due to braces-wearing.

Stay smart

Whether your child is at school, at home, or anywhere in between, all the same rules for braces care to remain the same, particularly when it comes to food restrictions. This can be one of the biggest challenges your child will face while undergoing orthodontic treatment, and school can make it even harder for kids to choose lunches and snacks that are braces-friendly. It’s usually easy enough to manage this at home where you can keep your child away from any foods that are too crunchy or chewy, but it may be a bit more difficult if your child normally buys school lunches or uses a vending machine for snacks.

In order to keep your child’s orthodontic treatment progressing as it should, make it a habit to check the school’s lunch menu every week for options that are safe for braces. This includes things like lean meat, mashed potatoes, spaghetti, mac and cheese, and cooked vegetables. If the choices tend to be limited, packing a lunch can sometimes make things easier for both of you! Try packing pasta, soups, and other soft options into a Thermos, or cut a sandwich into smaller bites the night before. All of these will make eating and chewing easier for students in braces. Don’t forget the snacks! Healthy options such as applesauce and yogurt can be a great addition to your child’s lunch bag, and will help keep them feeling full and satisfied throughout the school day, as well as being gentle on braces.

Food isn’t the only important consideration at lunchtime. What your child chooses to drink at school can also affect their braces! Staying hydrated is always a priority, but drinking water is also a really easy way to keep food particles from sticking to the teeth and braces. Drinking from a water bottle throughout the day will keep your child’s thirst quenched and teeth clean. We encourage our patients to stick to plain water instead of soda, fruit juices, or other sugary drinks, as these can stain teeth and increase the risk for cavities. For the occasional sweet drink, kids should use a straw to keep the sugar as far away from their teeth as possible. 

Stay safe

If you have a student-athlete on your hands, or a child who still has regular P.E. or gym class, we recommend an orthodontic mouthguard. Most people tend to think of sports like football and hockey as the most dangerous to the teeth, but almost half of all sports-related mouth injuries actually occur in basketball and baseball. A properly fitted orthodontic mouthguard is designed to be worn with braces, and is the easiest way to protect your child’s mouth from injury (and their braces from being damaged) if they are tackled, elbowed, or if they fall down. These mouthguards, as well as non-orthodontic models, are generally available at most major sporting goods stores. Dr. Lee is also happy to recommend or order one for your child, if you’d prefer to go through our office instead.

Dr. Jared Lee will send your child back to school with a smile on their face

For kids who are going back to school with new braces, it’s not uncommon to feel nervous or anxious about what to expect. Even patients who have been in braces for a while might struggle with feeling slightly more stressed than usual about going back to school! The good news is, it really doesn’t take long for life with braces to become just another part of your child’s daily routine. We’re here to help make your child’s orthodontic journey as rewarding and exciting as possible! If either of you have any questions or concerns about how to navigate the new school year while wearing braces, please get in touch with us and we’ll do all we can to set your minds at ease. We wish you and your child a wonderful start to the new school year, and look forward to seeing their straight-A smile soon!

Orthodontics might seem ultra modern, but they have been around just as long as the pyramids of Ancient Egypt. Orthodontics gradually developed into the sophisticated practice it is today with the help of varied devices and techniques. It is not surprising that the history of orthodontics goes back thousands of years as poorly aligned teeth and jaws have always affected our ability to chew and speak. Dr. Lee and 805 Orthodontics are proud to carry on the tradition of perfecting straight and healthy smiles!

Ancient Orthodontics

Crooked teeth in human remains have been found by archaeologists that date back 50,000 years. Something very similar to what orthodontists use today to correct misaligned teeth has been found in Egyptian mummies. Many of the mummies had crude metal bands around their teeth similar to today’s orthodontic wire, and archaeologists believed that catgut, a type of cord made from the natural fibers of an animal’s intestines, was tied to these bands to provide the pressure needed to close gaps in the teeth and mouth. Even Cleopatra wore a pair!

Other Ancient people, including the Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Romans, also practiced orthodontia. Etruscan women used gold bands to to maintain space and prevent collapse of the teeth during the afterlife. The first known description of tooth irregularities was written down by the Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates around 400 B.C. Both Hippocrates and Aristotle contemplated ways to straighten teeth and fix various dental conditions. 400 years later a Roman writer named Celsus recommended bringing newly emerged teeth into their proper position by regularly pushing them with your fingers. Around the same time another Roman named Pliny the Elder, advised filing elongated teeth to size. Roman tombs have been found with a number of teeth bound with gold wire documented as a ligature wire, a small elastic wire that is used to affix the arch wire to the bracket. Little research was carried out on dental braces until around the 17th century due to lack of evidence, poor preservation of bodies, and primitive technology.

The 17th and 18th Centuries

Around the beginning of the 17th century Matthaeus Gottfried Purmann reported using wax to take dental impressions. Then Phillip Pfaff began to use plaster of Paris in 1756.

Progress in orthodontics stalled until the 18th century,when a surge in development of dental techniques began to take place. Pierre Fauchard is considered the Father of Dentistry. In 1728 he published a book on the methods of straightening teeth entitled The Surgeon Dentist. He invented an appliance called bandeau: a horseshoe-shaped strip of metal that contained regularly spaced holes to fit around the teeth and correct their alignment. Fauchard operated on patients with a set of forceps called a pelican. He would forcibly realign teeth and tie them to the neighboring teeth to hold them in place while they healed.

In 1754, the dentist to the King of France, Louis Bourdet, followed Fauchard’s book with his own entitled The Dentist’s Art, and dedicated a chapter to tooth alignment and application. He perfected the bandeau, and was the first dentist on record to recommend extraction of the premolar teeth to alleviate crowding and improve jaw growth. A few years later, Christophe-François Delabarre introduced the wire crib, which marked the birth of contemporary orthodontics. He tried to separate overcrowded teeth by inserting swelling threads or wooden wedges between each space.

Orthodontics in the United States

Although teeth and palate straightening had been practiced since early times, orthodontics, as a science of its own, did not really exist until the mid-19th century. Several important dentists helped to advance dental braces with specific instruments and tools that allowed braces to be improved, and most of these significant contributions began in the United States. In 1822, J.S. Gunnell invented the occipital anchorage, a form of headgear that fastened to the jaw from the outside of the mouth to exert gentle pressure on the teeth. In 1840, Chapin A. Harris published the first classic book on dentistry, The Dental Art. It outlined practices like soldering knobs on bands to assist with tooth rotation, and applying gold caps to molars to open the dental bite. Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber in 1839, and orthodontists realized the potential of the new material. E.G. Tucker became the first American dentist to use rubber in an orthodontic appliance by cutting rubber bands from rubber tubing in 1850. Norman William Kingsley, who was a dentist, writer, artist, and sculptor, wrote the first article on orthodontics. He published his book, Treatise on Oral Deformities, in 1880. John Nutting Farrar was the first dentist to suggest the use of mild force at timed intervals to move teeth and wrote two volumes on the subject entitled A Treatise on the Irregularities of the Teeth and Their Corrections.

Entering the 20th Century

Edward Hartley Angle is considered the Father of Modern Orthodontics. Beginning in 1880, he identified the true properties of a malocclusion, or misalignment, and addressed them with an increasingly effective set of orthodontic appliances.

Prior to the 1970s, orthodontists had anchored brackets to teeth by winding wires around each tooth. But the invention of dental adhesives meant that they could instead stick the brackets to teeth surfaces. At this time stainless steel replaced gold and silver as the most popular choice for wires due to its manipulability, which also reduced the cost of braces significantly. Lingual braces, which run along the inside surface of teeth, were also introduced around this time to address the aesthetic concerns we still have today.

So whether you want to have the straight smile of a queen like Cleopatra, or are looking for the healthiest smile you can have, 805 Orthodontics is here to help you achieve your dreams! Call us, or stop by our Oxnard and Santa Paula offices today.

Braces and teenagers have gone hand in hand for years. A lot of our friends and us had them growing up. Sometimes they were so commonplace that they were not something that anyone was teased about. The same might not be said for others. The discomfort and annoyances that went along with having metal brackets cemented to your teeth were compounded by the possibility of being teased. 805 Orthodontics has an alternative to help you out. Say hello to Invisalign Teen: Custom made, removable plastic aligners that do the same work as traditional metal braces but are clear and practically invisible while in the mouth. They are easier to wear, less noticeable, and more comfortable than metal braces because they have no wires, brackets, or bands. But are they right for your teen? Here are a few facts to help you decide whether Invisalign is right for your teen.

How Invisalign Works

Invisalign looks just like the plastic retainers that teenagers get when they are done with their metal braces treatment. Wondering how these plastic trays can actually move your teen’s teeth? They do it in a very similar way to how braces move your teeth. The aligners put pressure on the teeth, gradually shifting them out of misalignment and into alignment. Every two weeks, your teen will trade out the old aligner for a new one, and the teeth will continue to move. There may be some discomfort as the teeth adjust to the new aligner, but there is generally less discomfort than with metal braces.

Invisalign is Just as Affordable as Traditional Braces

A common misconception about Invisalign is that it is going to be more expensive than other treatments, which leads many parents to decide on metal braces instead of Invisalign. Braces and Invisalign treatments cost about the same amount these days when covered by insurance. The simplest answer to this is for you and your teen to come in for a consultation at 805 Orthodontics.

Easy to Replace

It is possible that your teen might take out his aligners to eat lunch at school, put them on a napkin, and accidentally throw them away. They might leave them at a friend’s house, or they might, as things do, just disappear. What is going to happen if they misplace a set of aligners? In general, you can simply get a replacement by contacting us and letting us know that the aligners have gone missing. Depending on how close your teen was to swapping out those aligners for the next set, we might just move on to the next set and not worry about a replacement.

Daily Wear

In order for treatment to be as effective as possible, your teen needs to wear their aligners for a minimum of twenty-two hours every day. That gives them plenty of time to take them out for eating and cleaning. At all other times, as often as possible, they should be wearing them. Like most things in life, Invisalign only works when you use it. If your teen is not wearing their liners, then their teeth are not being helped. Sometimes, your teen might have extracurricular activities that require them to remove those aligners, like band or sports, but Invisalign aligners are designed to be discreet enough that they can be worn at all other times without disrupting your teen’s life.

Dietary Restrictions

With metal braces, there are lots of diet restrictions and it can be very difficult to determine whether or not your teen is actually following those restrictions. With Invisalign for teens, however, there are no dietary restrictions. Because your teen can remove the aligners completely from their mouth when it is time to eat, they can eat whatever they like, whenever they would like.

Adjusting to Invisalign

The biggest roadblock we at 805 Orthodontics see with Invisalign for teen patients is that they simply do not wear their aligners enough. Especially in the beginning, there is an adjustment period, during which your teen might notice increased saliva production as the mouth adjusts to something new in its environment, or speaks with a little bit of a lisp. These things can discourage a teen from wearing their aligners, even if they know that if they keep wearing their aligners these issues will go away. It is really up to the parent and the teen to make sure that the aligners are being worn.

Invisalign Upkeep

If your teen is progressing at the right rate, it will be obvious that they have been diligent about wearing those aligners as much as possible.We will be able to tell, when your teen comes in for checkups, whether or not they have in fact been wearing their aligners. If they are lagging behind a little bit, this could be an indication that they have not been wearing them as often as they should have been. If they are far behind on their treatment, we can attribute this to not wearing their aligners as prescribed.

If you are in Oxnard, Santa Paula, or the surrounding areas, and are ready to explore what Invisalign may have to offer your teen, set up a free Invisalign Teen consultation with us today. 805 Orthodontics will be happy to help you discover if Invisalign Teen is right for you!