Eating and Clear Aligners

Eating and clear aligners

One of the greatest advantages to using Clear Aligners are that it provides maximum results with minimal impact on your everyday life. Clear Aligners are comfortable, easy to insert, and simple to remove. Because you can remove Clear Aligners, you can enjoy all your favorite foods and beverages without worries about getting food stuck in the wires and brackets of traditional braces.

Eating and Clear Aligners

While the aligner is durable and strong, you should remove it before you eat or drink beverages, as the chewing action inside your mouth can break, crack, or distort the aligner. Even minute damage to the Clear Aligners tray will prevent it from aligning your teeth properly. Furthermore, eating with Clear Aligners in your mouth can be quite messy.

Beverages and Clear Aligners

Repeated exposure to hot liquids may also cause the Clear Aligner to distort. This distortion changes the shape of your aligner in a way that will affect how it straightens your teeth. Contact our Shreveport, Louisiana office if your Clear Aligners have distorted after consuming a hot beverage.

Fluids can settle inside the aligner to “bathe” the teeth. Bathing teeth in acidic fluids can be especially problematic, as the acids can wear away tooth enamel. Exposure to acidic fluids is not normally a problem, as saliva neutralizes and buffers the acid then washes it away. Wearing an aligner, however, prevents the saliva from doing those jobs, increasing your risk for tooth decay.

Colored drinks may also change the color of your teeth. Most discoloration is temporary but stubborn stains may occur.

To prevent discoloration and tooth decay, brush your teeth after every meal or beverage before putting in your Clear Aligners. If you do not have access to clean water, chew sugar-free gum to remove bacteria, acid, and food particles from your teeth. As a last resort, you may leave your aligners out for an hour or two until you can brush and floss properly. Before inserting Clear Aligners, rinse the aligner in lukewarm water or use the Clear Aligners cleaning kit.

Contact our Shreveport, Louisiana office for more information about eating and Clear Aligners.

Labor Day: Our favorite holiday to rest!

Labor Day, celebrated on the first Monday each September here in the United States, is a holiday devoted to the American working community. The purpose of the holiday is honoring the country’s workers and their contributions to the strength of our country as a whole.

How Labor Day Started

There is actually some debate as to the origins of Labor Day. It is uncertain whether Peter McGuire, a cofounder for the American Federation of Labor, or Matthew Maguire, who was the secretary of Central Labor Union of New York, had the great idea. However, the Central Labor Union’s plans were what launched the first Labor Day in America.

The First Labor Day

The very first Labor Day was celebrated on September 5th, 1882. The Central Labor Union then held annual celebrations on September 5th for what they called a working man’s holiday. By the year 1885, the Labor Day celebration had spread to many different industrial areas, and after that it began spreading to all industries in the United States.

Labor Day Today

Labor Day today is a huge United States holiday during which we honor the country’s workers with a day of rest and relaxation or a day of picnics and parades. This holiday is truly one to honor the many people who work hard to contribute to the economic well-being of our great country!

Our team at Cosse & Silmon Orthodontics hopes all of our patients celebrate Labor Day, and every holiday, safely and happily. Whether you stay in the Shreveport, Louisiana area, or travel out of town, have fun, and don’t forget to brush!

Why Damon® Smile?

Christopher Cosse and our dedicated team at Cosse & Silmon Orthodontics are pleased to offer Damon Smile for our patients. Damon braces allow your teeth to move more comfortably and easily than do traditional braces. Thanks to these innovative new braces, achieving your perfect smile will be faster and easier than you ever thought possible.

You’re probably saying, “Okay, how are Damon braces an advantage over regular braces?”

Time Saving

Damon’s innovative technology of self-ligating braces saves you time in orthodontic treatment at Cosse & Silmon Orthodontics. Damon Smile allows for fewer trips to our office, and faster movement of your teeth than do traditional braces. The light forces applied by Damon braces are “biologically compatible,” meaning that they work with your body for gentler and quicker tooth movement. Finally, Damon braces diminish the amount of food and moisture that can become trapped along the brackets, allowing for more efficient teeth cleaning.

Comfortable

Damon Smile braces have a unique slide mechanism that allows Christopher Cosse to use lighter forces to move your teeth to their correct positions. That makes your treatment at Cosse & Silmon Orthodontics not only shorter, but also far more comfortable. Because of its unique sliding door, the Damon Smile bracket allows us to use high-tech, light-force wires to achieve tooth movement. That means less pressure on your teeth for more comfortable treatment.

To learn more about Damon Smile, or to schedule an initial consultation with Christopher Cosse, please give us a call.

How does AcceleDent® make orthodontic treatment more efficient?

Patients who need to get orthodontic treatment are often concerned about how long they will wear their braces. Christopher Cosse will tell you the good news is, is there is a solution for any patient who wants to minimize the time he or she needs to wear braces. AcceleDent is a device that uses micropulse technology to reduce how long your orthodontic treatment takes. Small vibrations go through your teeth, enabling them to move into their correct positions faster. The device needs to be worn only for a few minutes a day, and is a non-invasive and non-surgical way to make orthodontics more efficient.

How AcceleDent Works

The AcceleDent appliance is a custom mouthpiece that fits comfortably around your braces. It works with traditional braces, clear braces, and even Clear Aligners. The mouthpiece is inserted once a day, an activator is turned on, and the mouthpiece is worn for just 20 minutes. You only need to bite the mouthpiece hard enough to hold it in place. You can participate in any activities you like while wearing it. The mouthpiece comes with an online usage history as well, so you can see how many times you have used it to make sure you are wearing it as intended.

Benefits of AcceleDent

Besides being hands-free, lightweight, and comfortable, you can benefit in a number of significant ways by using AcceleDent orthodontic treatment:

  • It speeds up orthodontic treatment by up to 52 percent.
  • AcceleDent® is only worn for 20 minutes a day.
  • It is approved by the FDA.
  • It is non-invasive and non-surgical.
  • It helps with dental hygiene by minimizing the amount of time needed for orthodontic treatment.

Most of our patients at Cosse & Silmon Orthodontics welcome the opportunity to reduce their orthodontic treatment time, and that’s just what AcceleDent offers. Contact our Shreveport, Louisiana office or ask our team at your next appointment to see if AcceleDent is right for your smile!