Pictures with Braces

Now something you will encounter that is an issue for some teens is when they have pictures taken with braces. Most teenagers are embarrassed and don’t smile with their teeth in pictures. This is not necessary since anyone who has seen you in real life knows you have braces. Chances are you are making it a bigger deal than it really is. Here are a couple things you can do to improve your pictures if you are really worried about how they will look.

1. When you are choosing your bands, choose a lighter color. If you choose a dark color the bands will really stand out in pictures and can sometimes look like something is stuck in your teeth. Sometimes choosing alternating colors look really cool and different in pictures.

2. Always smile real smiles! This improves your pictures immensely since if you are self conscious about your braces when you are having a picture taken it will show!

3. If you want to you can smile without your teeth showing but if it isn’t your real smile then we recommend just smiling!

Since so many kids have braces nowadays it definitely isn’t a big deal and most teenagers look good with braces! So just smile in them. We understand the need to hide them, especially for important pictures such as school photos and such, but it isn’t that noticeable. We promise!

-Amanda and Erik

Cleaning Guide to Headgear

Your head gear will eventually become, to be quite blunt, caked in dried spit and plaque. When it gets to this point, you will probably not want to be putting it back in your mouth anytime soon. This calls for a thorough cleansing.

One way to clean your head gear is to brush it using you’re toothbrush and toothpaste and brush it like you would your teeth. Or if it still smells funky, you can soak it in mouthwash. Just leave it in for about 5 minutes and then brush it thoroughly. Doing this should clean up your headgear nicely and make it clean!

We recommend you brush your headgear every couple of days so it doesn’t build up. Plus, when you think about it, if there is still plaque on your headgear then it is similar to not brushing your teeth. The plaque sits in your mouth overnight (or however long you wear your head gear) and will cause bad breath /or cavities.

Keeping your head gear clean will also make it less of a big deal to wear, after all no one wants to put a dirty piece of metal into their mouth for hours on end!

-Amanda and Erik

Sleeping with Headgear

One issue you might run into while wearing your headgear, but not really think about until you have to actually do it, is sleeping while wearing it. This may not even be a problem if you only need to wear it for a few hours during the day. Many people choose to wear the head gear at night though because that means you don’t have to be out in public with it on.

We have both had to wear the headgear at night and know all of the good and bad positions:

1. On your chest: Although it may seem rather obvious, this is probably the worst position to try to sleep in. It is actually painful to lie down in this position because the metal of the headgear pushes your teeth to the side and your mouth becomes really sore after just a few minutes.

2. On your side: This is sort of in the middle. It is not too difficult to fall asleep like this since there is a lot less pressure on the side of your head, and thus, on your teeth and jaw. You need to be careful about this one though because it might end up making your jaw a little asymmetrical if you continuously sleep on the same side since the headgear would be pulling on one side more than the other.

3. On your back: This is by far the most comfortable position. When lying down like this, there is very little strain on your teeth aside from the normal amount you would feel while wearing the gear. The straps also do not dig into your neck too much. You can even position yourself so that the headgear strap isn’t even on the pillow and then there will be no outside strain on your head at all!

Hopefully this will help you find a comfortable position and make the time you have to wear your headgear just a bit better.

-Erik and Amanda

Wisdom Teeth Part 4: The Last Week

For the first two days after your operation you will need to not eat any hard food. This is very important if you had multiple wisdom teeth removed because the more teeth the more chances of your stitches coming loose. If you eat hard food you will need to chew and since those areas are still sensitive it might keep them from healing when being continually opened up.

So we recommend just eating jello, pudding, mashed potatoes, soup, ice cream, smoothies etc anything that is basically liquid and doesn’t require chewing. Doesn’t sound that bad what with most liquids being desserts!

Also if you keep up the icing 20 minutes on and off for a bit each day, you will probably avoid the chipmunk cheeks that go along with getting your wisdom teeth removed.

After about a week you will be able to eat and you can probably get off the pain medication you are on. But everyone is different so play it by ear.

-Amanda and Erik

Wisdom Teeth Part 3: Day of the Operation

The day of you go into the surgeons office and depending on how nervous you are they might give you a hypnotic or happy juice. Then they will take you back and inject the anesthesia.


Then you will wake up and your teeth will be removed! There are some slight side affects such as fatigue and slight amnesia. When Erik got his removed, he woke up and was really groggy. He kept asking the same questions over and over! And on the way back he was talking a lot but didn’t remember it later that day.

Also he could barely walk and basically fell asleep when he got home. But you need to ice for the first day 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off. So we kept him awake with music!For the rest of the day he just sipped cold water and iced his cheeks and relaxed. The amnesia fully wore off about 4 hours later.

That is basically what is to expected the day of the operation

-Amanda and Erik