ORTHODONTIC EMERGENCIES IN CARY, NC

Need Emergency Orthodontic Care in Cary, NC?

True orthodontic emergencies rarely occur, but when they do, our Cary orthodontic practice is always available to help! If you’re experiencing severe pain or having a painful orthodontic appliance problem that you cannot deal with, call our office right away, and we’ll schedule an appointment to see you promptly and resolve the issue.

Things to Do During an Orthodontic Emergency

You may be surprised to find that you can provide temporary fixes to some orthodontic issues yourself until you can get to our office. Here are some orthodontic problems that can lead to an emergency and how you can deal with them:

General Soreness

You may experience general soreness in your mouth, and your teeth may feel a little tender to biting and chewing pressures for three to five days when you first get your braces. This is normal, and we promise the soreness will not last forever!

To reduce the discomfort, stick to a soft diet until you find chewing more comfortable. You can also rinse your mouth with warm salt-water mouthwash to relieve your irritated gums and other sore spots. Dissolve a teaspoonful of salt in 8 ounces of warm water and use the mixture to rinse your mouth vigorously.

If you have severe tenderness, you can take Acetaminophen (Tylenol), or whatever you normally take for a headache or similar pain, every six hours. Pain relievers like Naproxen Sodium (Naprosyn, Anaprox), Ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), and Aspirin actually reduce tooth movement, so we do not recommend using them frequently while wearing braces.

Your tongue, cheeks, and lips may become irritated for one to two weeks as they accustom themselves to the surface of the braces and learn a new posture. You can apply wax or mouth sore gel on your braces to reduce the irritation. Our Cary orthodontist will show you how!

Loose Orthodontic Appliance

If your braces are loose and you can remove them, put them in an envelope or a plastic bag and bring them along with you on your next orthodontic visit. If your braces are poking you, put soft wax on the piece of wire that’s sticking out or clip it with a wire cutter or fingernail clippers until you can get into our office. If the wire has slid to one side, use a needle-nosed plier to pull it back to the other side and insert it into the tube on the back tooth.

After alleviating your pain and discomfort, you will still need to call our office as soon as you can to schedule a time to fix the issue. Allowing your orthodontic appliance to remain damaged for an extended period can disrupt your treatment plan.

Headgear

Sometimes discomfort is caused by not wearing your orthodontic headgear as instructed by your orthodontist. Please check and follow the instructions provided by your orthodontist. If the metal piece of your face bow is bent, please call (919) 276-8499 or visit our Cary orthodontic office for assistance. The more you wear your headgear, the less it should hurt, so make sure you wear it for the prescribed number of hours.

Loose Bracket

If your bracket or band is still attached to the wire, you should leave it in place and put wax on it if needed for comfort. If the bracket or band can be removed easily, place it in an envelope and save it to bring to your next appointment.

Loose Wire

You can try to put your wire back into place using needle-nosed pliers or a pair of tweezers. You can also use a piece of floss to tie the wire into place. This will require you to tie the floss around the bracket in place of the missing-colored O-ring. If covering the end with wax doesn’t help, and you can’t place the wire into a comfortable position, as a last resort, you can clip the wire behind the last tooth where it is securely fastened by using a small fingernail clipper. Then, apply wax to the end of the wire if it’s still sharp.

Poking Wire

To take care of poking wire, push the poking wire down with a pencil eraser or put a small amount of wax on it until it no longer pokes you.

Please give us a call if you have any questions or need help managing your ortho emergency before you can get to our office. Remember to schedule an appointment so we can see you promptly, resolve the issue, and bring you out of pain with our emergency orthodontic care in Cary, NC.