A beautiful healthy smile can help you look better—and feel better. When your bite is misaligned, it can affect your speech, the way you chew and your ability to keep your teeth clean and free from decay. It can even cause chronic headaches. There are many benefits to straightening your teeth. And Dr. Jessica Hylan-Cohen is a Chicago orthodontist who can give you specialized treatment with braces.

How Braces Work

Braces place a constant, gentle and controlled force on teeth to slowly move them in the correct direction.  They are made of wires and brackets. The brackets are attached to the front of your teeth, and the wires are threaded through them to slowly move the teeth.

Treatment time typically lasts one to three years. If you’re considering treatment for your child, early treatment makes it easier to guide the growth of his or her jaw and incoming teeth.

You Have Options

There is much more to today’s braces than traditional metal wire and brackets. They can be made of plastic or ceramic to blend in with your teeth. Brackets can be clear. And you can choose the color of the bands that hold the wire in the brackets.

There are also Invisalign® invisible braces—a series of clear custom-made aligners that straighten your teeth. They are removed when you eat, floss and brush. They straighten your teeth in half the time of traditional braces. Dr. Hylan-Cohen will determine if they are right for your case.

Caring for Your Teeth

You must be diligent about oral hygiene. Otherwise, plaque and trapped food left on your teeth or around the wires and brackets can give you bad breath, cause your gums to swell and leave permanent marks on your teeth.

Brushing

• Carry a toothbrush with you, so that you can floss and brush after every snack and meal.
• In a circular motion, slowly brush the entire surface of every tooth.
• Brush upper teeth from the gumline down. Brush lower teeth from the gumline up.
• Brush the biting surface and the inside of each tooth.
• Tilt the toothbrush and slowly brush around and between the braces.
• Brush your tongue and the roof of your mouth.

Flossing

• Use unwaxed floss to carefully clean between the braces and the wire. And you’ll need to use a floss threader, which is a stiff, but thin plastic loop that enables you to poke the floss under the braces, since you can’t snap the floss through the contact point of the teeth as usual.
• Carefully floss around the braces, the gums and each tooth.

Some foods are difficult to remove from your teeth, even if you floss and brush. So avoid foods that are chewy, crunchy, sticky or hard. Also avoid foods that require a lot of biting, such as corn on the cob and apples.

If you play sports, it’s recommended that you wear a mouth guard for protection. You have an important role in  contributing to the end result—a healthy, beautiful smile.

As a Chicago orthodontist, Dr. Hylan-Cohen has received specialized training to correctly assess your case and give you the best treatment with braces.