Archive for category: BRO News

Can you believe it’s already December? The holidays are upon us!

The most wonderful time of the year doesn’t have to be any less wonderful if you’re currently wearing braces. In fact, it might just *sparkle* with even more magic than usual.

Foods to Avoid

As much as we love to see you, we hope you won’t need to interrupt any holiday cheer with an emergency appointment.

If you have traditional braces, here are some festive foods you’ll want to avoid:

• Candy canes
  • Remember, this includes peppermint bark and chocolate covered candy canes!
  • If you break off pieces to suck on rather than crunching down (even at the end, when it’s tempting!) you should be okay.
• Caramel apples
• Corn on the cob
• Hard cheese and charcuterie
• Hard cookies
• Meat on the bone
• Pecan pie
• Peanut brittle
• Toffee and other hard candies

Here are some festive foods you can indulge in:

• Cake
• Cranberry sauce
• Eggnog
  • If you’re an adult who is over 21 that is! (Be sure to check out our Lifestyle Guide to Adult Braces)
  • Of course, eggnog can also be served without alcohol for the kiddos or anyone who prefers it that way.
• Green bean casserole
• Ham
• Hot chocolate
• Jello
• Pudding
• Soft cheese and charcuterie
• Soft cookies (just make sure they don’t have any hard candy or nut chunks)
• Stuffing
• Turkey

We know you all are smart cookies (food pun intended!) so we also want to encourage you to just use your best judgement. There are lot of “in between” foods that could go either way. Take s’mores, for example. Crunching down on a graham cracker with your braces isn’t the best idea, nor is biting into a hard chunk of chocolate. However, if you were to let the toasted marshmallow melt the piece chocolate on a place, and then either eat it sans graham cracker or break the cracker into smaller pieces, you would probably be fine.

The same thing goes for dinner rolls: tearing off a crusty bite with your teeth might pop a bracket, whereas using your hands to pull off piece or sticking to soft options like Hawaiian rolls will protect your teeth.

Colorful Cheer

One of the most exciting parts of having braces (besides looking forward to perfectly straight teeth!) is getting to change the colors of your elastics.

Will you go with a popping combo like red and green for Christmas or blue and silver for Hannukah? Or maybe just keep it festive-chic with all gold, all silver, or a metallic wintery grey?

The world–and the BRO office–is your oyster!

Invisalign

If you have Invisalign or BRO Impressions, you already know you can eat whatever you want– during your 2-4 hour eating window, that is!

We recommend setting a timer on your phone when it comes to your allotted time. This season often includes a busy social calendar, and it can be easy to lose track when things are merry at the office holiday party, jolly at an ugly sweater party, or peaceful and bright while driving around looking at Christmas lights with a canteen of hot chocolate.

We recommend planning ahead a little extra during the holidays. If you know you have a social engagement on the calendar that evening, try to keep breakfast and lunch short. Also don’t forget that this season is all about peppermint– and that includes the taste of toothpaste when you brush your teeth before putting those aligners back in! 😉

Conclusion

We hope you and your family are having an amazing holiday season! We can’t wait to wish you a merry everything when you come in for your next appointment. And if we don’t see you before 2018, we hope you finish this year with lots of love and laughter!

If you do end up having an orthodontic emergency, please get in touch with us! We are always a phone call away at 828-585-6045, or you can view additional contact information here.

It’s that time of the year again! Perhaps on the 31st we should refer to ourselves as “BOO” instead of “BRO”?

We love Halloween around here, and we know most of our amazing patients do too!

That being said, let’s save the scary moments for haunted houses and costumes– not for your braces. We’ve put together a little guide on how to avoid all kinds of orthodontic scares.

Pre-Braces Jitters

Are you super excited to be straightening your smile? If you already feel the same way about improved confidence and oral health as little girls do about princess costumes, then you can skip on down to the next section!

These tips are for those of you who might be feeling a little wary of your upcoming orthodontic experience, or have kids who are nervous about theirs. Don’t worry, that’s okay too! Working through your apprehension is better than suppressing it.

Here are a few things that might help:

• You are far from alone. Over four million people wear braces in the US alone!
• Out of those four million people, approximately one million are adults.
• Gwen Stefani once said, “I always told myself when I got rich, that’s the first thing I’d do,” in regard to braces. Here at Blue Ridge Orthodontics, we working with most private insurance and try to make them accessible to everyone. That being said, how cool that rocking braces was Gwen’s first priority!
• Braces have become so commonplace that they no longer have the “nerdy” stereotype they did in the eighties and early nineties.
• At BRO, we charge the same for Invisalign as we do for braces, so you can make your choice based on your true preference rather than your bank account.
• Braces are like going to the gym. Even if you’re dreading it, you’ll feel happy and healthy after you’re done!

We like to think being at the BRO office is way more fun than the gym anyway. We even have a spa because the trick to entertaining waiting parents is a nice treat!

Spooky Snacks

When you think of Halloween, the main two things that come to mind are probably costumes and candy!

via GIPHY

That won’t need to change when you have braces; the second part will simply need to be modified a little.

We advise picking softer chocolates; for example, opt for Reese’s cups over harder options like Butterfinger or Reisen. Watch out for nuts, caramel, and anything crunchy or sticky.

If you (or your child) is a huge fan of something specific like Snickers, it will probably be okay to cut it into smaller pieces and put it back on the molars to chew slowly and carefully.

It’s always fun to get think like a family team too! For example, if you have one child in braces and one who isn’t, the siblings can trade trick or treat candies with one another and get some softer options to the braces-wearing child.

Not to mention that you can think outside the wrapper! Try baking Halloween themed cupcakes as a family or buy the braces-wearer’s favorite non-chunky flavor of ice cream during Halloween week. If you’re a 21+ orthodontic patient, maybe pour yourself a glass of champagne to make up for skipping the toffee and caramel this year. The possibilities are endless!

Keeping Your Teeth Healthy

When you’re indulging in things like candy and sugary beverages, make sure to brush your teeth as soon as you are done! Optimally you are brushing after every meal anyway, but it’s especially important after an orange-frosted chocolate cupcake.

Invisalign patients are in luck because they can take their aligners out and eat things like caramel apples. That being said, remember to brush your teeth, clean your aligners, and put them back in! It can be easy to take your aligners out for a Halloween party or a night of nibbling on your kids trick-or-treat snacks and go over your allotted 2 hours of daily eating time.

Happy Halloween from the BRO Team

Now that you know how to enjoy Halloween with braces, we hope you won’t have anything to be scared of… except maybe this ↓

via GIPHY

Is anyone planning on incorporating their braces into their Halloween costume? We’re thinking Gwen Stefani in her pink wig and tin grin would be quite the cool 90s throwback!

As always, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Dr. Roberts, Dr. Schuler, Dr. Twomley, and all of us BROmies want your holiday to be awesome and worry-free. Happy Halloween from our family to yours!

If you’re thinking of getting Invisalign here in beautiful Asheville, NC, you likely have a couple of questions. Most people who are considering any kind of orthodontics have questions and often those specifically considering Invisalign have even more. One of the biggest ones is “How exactly will Invisalign aligners actually straighten my teeth?”

The discreet and convenient treatment method has already been used by 2.6 million patients worldwide, but since traditional braces have a longer history, many people don’t yet understand Invisalign.

If you’re one of them, don’t worry! We’re here to break down the Invisalign treatment process for you.

By Smikey Io – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

The Preparation

When you come in for your free initial consultation, Invisalign will be one of the options we discuss. Since we’re an Elite Preferred Provider, you will be in the best hands possible!

If you love this almost-invisible way to straighten your smile as much as we do, we would then proceed with the beginning steps.

These include the following:

1. Dental Impressions- We will put a tray filled with impression putty in your mouth and allow it to set, providing an impression of your teeth. Or we can take digital impressions instead! (NOTE: would like to confirm that this is how BRO does this.)
2. Bite registration – We will spread a layer of fast-setting paste on your teeth and have you bite down. It sounds similar to the impressions, but the bite registration allows us to document how your upper and lower bite actually come together, as opposed to just having separate impressions of each row of teeth.
3. Dental X-Rays – Taking a look at your root positioning, as well as your tooth and jawbone health, is an important step of the Invisalign process. You’re likely already familiar with having dental X-Rays taken.
4. Photographs – Smile for the camera! Align Technology, the company behind Invisalign, asks for a series of 8 specific photos. They will include different sides of your face and close-ups of your teeth.

This may seem like a lot of tasks, but luckily this appointment only takes an hour, maybe an hour and a half! (Again, I’d like to confirm that BRO keeps to this type of timeframe)

The Aligner Manufacturing Process

Once we have all the information we need, we send it to Align Technology. Over on their end of things, the company will transform your impressions into digital information. The Invisalign technicians will create an on-screen 3-D model of your teeth, and then create your treatment simulation. This simulation will map out the proposed plan of action, giving you a glimpse of your smile’s future.

After the treatment animation is finished, Dr. Roberts, Dr. Twomley or Dr. Schuler will evaluate this proposed treatment plan. If your orthodontist here at BRO agrees that the sequence of tooth movements will yield the perfect results, he or she will give approval to proceed to the next step.

Align Technology will use your digital information to create a series of personalized upper and lower aligners. They are then sent to Blue Ridge Orthodontics in Asheville. Once we’ve received the aligners (typically anywhere from 3-6 weeks), it’s time to really get that tooth-straightening party started!

Your Journey to Your Perfect Smile

The amount of aligners you will need varies from person to person. It can be as small of a number as ten, or it can be over thirty! Sometimes the amount of time you need to wear a specific tray can vary too. While they tend to be worn about two weeks each, there are exceptions to this rule.

Some people may also need attachments, little clear buttons on some of their teeth. Attachments work as anchors to help aligners move some of the teeth while others stay stationary. Attachments are only used in certain cases, so you may not need them.

If this is starting to sound a little unpredictable, don’t worry! We’ll let you know these details ahead of time and be there for you every step of the way.

An “Alphabet” of Small Shifts

You may notice that your aligner is snug at first, or even hard to get in and out. That’s how it’s supposed to feel! The reason behind this seemingly ill fit is that the first aligner is meant to take your teeth from Point A to Point B, so it starts at Point B. Your teeth will gradually shift to fit the aligner, which is how they straighten over time. When you’re done with the first set and it’s time to urge your teeth from Point B to Point C, that second set will start at Point C.

As the “alphabet” progresses, your teeth get closer and closer to their desired location.

One of the benefits of Invisalign is that this treatment has the capability of moving faster than traditional braces. However, you hold the power to utilize or negate this advantage. Wearing your aligners for the recommended 22 hours a day will ensure a treatment experience that lives up to its full potential.

If you get to the “end” of your treatment and your teeth are not yet perfect, we will use a set of refinement trays. This is actually pretty common, so don’t be surprised if you were great about wearing the aligners and it still happens to you. Just consider your refinement trays the finishing touch!

Many people ask whether they will need a retainer after they finish Invisalign and the answer is almost always yes. Invisalign may look like a retainer, but it replaces traditional braces’ active role, not the retainer’s role of keeping your newly straightened teeth in place. We can always give you an Essix Retainer, which is made of clear plastic and looks a lot like an Invisalign tray.

Is Invisalign Right for You?

At the end of the day, only you can answer that question! Well, perhaps you and your parents if you’re a minor.

Invisalign can be the right choice for a number of reasons:

1. You prefer a subtler form of treatment
2. You’re in a career field where physical appearance is involved
3. You want a treatment that goes at a faster pace
4. You prefer a form of orthodontic treatment you can take out
5. You’re ready for beautiful straight teeth… but not so ready for traditional braces!

Invisalign is chosen for more reasons than we could ever name, but the primary draw is, well, Invisalign’s invisibility! Its potential to be a faster treatment option also appeals to many.

Every one of the 2.6 million people who’ve had Invisalign had their own unique reasons why, and now they have their own inspiring story to tell. If you’re curious about some of our patients’ experiences, feel free to check them out here!

Conclusion

We hope we’ve been able to shed some light on how Invisalign works and whether it may be the best fit for you. If you’d like a great visual resource, you can take a peek at this 2-minute YouTube video of the Invisalign process.

If you’d like to talk more in person about potentially starting your own Invisalign treatment, please set up your free consultation appointment by calling (828) 585-6045 or dropping us a line via our email: info@blueridgeorthodontics.com. Also, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with questions or concerns. There is never any obligation or pressure. We save any “pressure” for nudging teeth perfectly into place!

Have any upcoming vacations on your calendar? (If so, can you pack us in your suitcase?!)

While travel is fun and exciting, it can also be more challenging to take care of your braces or Invisalign. Whether you’re on the road or speed-walking to make your connecting flight, travel can be hectic.

No matter whether you’re enjoying a day at the beach or on the slopes, travel takes you out of your daily routine. That’s one of the best parts, but this deviation from the norm can negatively impact your orthodontic plan if you’re not careful! Here are four key tips to keep in mind while traveling with braces.

1) Snack Smart

Unfortunately your braces don’t get any PTO; they are on you full-time! (Unless, of course, you have Invisalign.)

Nothing puts a damper on a fun day like losing a bracket, especially if you are far away from Asheville, North Carolina and the team here at Blue Ridge Orthodontics.

While we don’t want you to miss out on the interesting foods of a new region, here are some things you always should skip:

• Bagels
• Candies that are:
  • Chewy
  • Gummy
  • Sticky
• Hard or chewy:
  • Bread
  • Cookies
  • Rolls
• Corn on the cob
• Ice (this is a sneaky, common culprit!)
• Nuts of any kind
• Pretzels
• Whole raw fruits and vegetables
  • Fruits and veggies are usually fine if they’re cut small

Remember, you can still treat yourself! You can eat ice cream as long as it doesn’t have a hard cone or crunchy toppings. With a food like pizza, you can cut it up into smaller bites. There are ways to handle vacation meals without compromising your braces or the joy behind that smile. Talk about having your cake and eating it too!

Invisalign Tips

If you have Invisalign, you already know you can eat whatever you’d like when your aligners are out. That being said, it’s easy to neglect the mandatory 22 hours of wear if you’re sipping pina coladas on a beach! Make extra sure you’ve set your timer for your eating/drinking non-water windows, so you don’t fall behind on your progress.

If you lose an aligner to a napkin in a “We’re about to miss our tour bus!” moment of panic, don’t worry. Simply use your previous or next aligner for the time being, and let us know what happened either by email or when you get back home to the Asheville area.

2) Keep Up Your Routine

Vacation is a great time to relax and leave your responsibilities behind, but this doesn’t include your brushing and flossing regimen. It may be tempting to do a sub-par job brushing in the morning, if you’re ready for a fun-packed day or just want to fall into that hotel bed at night without flossing. However, you don’t want a week or two of fun to negatively impact the smile you’ll have for the rest of your life.

Not to mention that good dental hygiene will make your smile look nice and shiny for those inevitable social media vacation selfies!

3) Pack a Travel Kit

We’ve talked about the braces kit before, but sometimes people stop needing them. If you don’t need wax because your braces never rub, you keep an extra toothbrush and floss in your locker/desk/car, and you use your phone as a mirror, you might be all set in your day-to-day life.

If you’re about to hit the road, however, you may find yourself needing a kit again! Here are the important items to include:

• A Compact Mirror – Vacations are sometimes so go-go-go that your phone might be dead at the end of a long day. Having a tiny compact mirror for checking your teeth in situations like this is ideal.
• Travel-Sized Toothbrush – Since you’re not near your school locker or work desk (yay!), you don’t have that second toothbrush to fall back on. Slip a small, foldable toothbrush into your purse or pocket for those post-meal cleanings on the go.
• Dental Floss – There’s nothing more annoying that having something between your teeth. You don’t want to spend part of a day with your tongue struggling in vain over that stringy bit of cubed mango, so make sure you have some floss and floss threaders on hand.
• Orthodontic Wax – Speaking of things you don’t want, it’s always a bummer if one of your brackets starts rubbing, and you’re stuck without wax. A packet of orthodontic wax is easily slipped into a wallet or pocket for that extra comfort insurance – just in case!
• Water Bottle – Staying hydrated on vacation is important, so having a water bottle on hand kills two birds with one stone. If you’re in a pinch and don’t have time to brush your teeth after a meal or snack, swishing water around your mouth is the next best option.

Your travel kit will help ensure that each vacation day goes smoothly. Make sure to remember your sunscreen, too!

4) Before You Go, Let Us Know

Schedule a pre-vacation appointment here at Blue Ridge Orthodontics before you leave. A last checkup can ensure all your brackets and wires are in place. If needed, we also can make adjustments to the upcoming appointments on your schedule, though this is typically only necessary for longer vacations.

If you do have big travel plans, such as an entire summer abroad, it’s best for us to know as soon as you do.

Conclusion

Most importantly, have an absolutely wonderful vacation! We hope you gained value from these four tips, but we encourage you not to worry too much. In the case of a broken bracket or other urgent problem, you can see an orthodontist who practices in your current area. Please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 828- 585-6045 if you have any questions or need help.

Here’s to rocking Blue Ridge Orthodontics braces or Invisalign anywhere across the globe! Bon voyage!