True orthodontic emergencies are very rare, but when they do occur we are available to you. As a general rule, you should call the office when you experience severe pain or when you have a painful appliance problem that you can't take care of yourself. 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. After alleviating your 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.

The following solutions may help you relieve your discomfort:

Wire Poking!
Use a pair of wire cutters for electrical wire and cut the wire that is poking. If you can't reach a wire that is poking in the back of your mouth, cut the wire between two brackets on the side of your mouth and then pull the piece through your braces and out of your mouth. Please make an appointment as soon as possible.

Loose Bracket!
You can remove a loose bracket by taking off the small elastic "O ring" that hooks the bracket to your archwire. Please make an appointment as soon as possible.

Tie Wire Poking!
The end of the small silver wires wrapped around a bracket can be tucked away using an eraser on the end of a pencil.

Broken Retainer!
Make an appointment immediately to make a new retainer!