Grind, grind, grind. If you live with a teeth grinder, you may be familiar with this unpleasant sound, especially recently. A study published in the journal Head & Face Medicine suggests that people—adults and kids—faced with stress tend to cope by grinding their teeth.

During stressful times, teeth grinding can be a nuisance that causes headaches and sleep problems, but it also can cause lasting problems for your teeth and gums, including chipped teeth, worn enamel, chronic pain, or even TMJ/TMD, a painful jaw disorder that occurs in your temporomandibular joints.

The first step of recovering from teeth grinding is noticing the problem, says Dr. Wiggins. Symptoms of teeth grinding include:

• Sensitivity in the teeth
• Tightness or pain in the jaw
• Dull headaches, earaches, or facial pain
• Chipped, worn down, or loose teeth

An important thing to remember is that people frequently grind their teeth in response to stress, and taking measures to reduce or eliminate stress can help solve the problem. If the teeth-grinder in your house can’t stop, schedule an appointment to see us by giving us a call. Dr. Wiggins and our team at Summit Orthodontics can help determine the cause of the problem.

Usually patients in orthodontic treatment already have their permanent teeth – they are pre-teens, teens and adults. But in some cases Dr. Wiggins has to start treatment earlier, even before the patient’s permanent teeth come in. We call this “two-phase treatment.”

When we have patients with clear developmental problems at an early age, it’s best to start work when they are young, before the problems get bigger and more difficult to treat.

Examples include:
• An upper or lower jaw that is not growing correctly
• A mouth growing in a way that doesn’t leave enough room for all the permanent teeth to come in
• A severe malocclusion, or bad bite, which means the jaw doesn’t fit together correctly

In these cases we will start early and do one round of treatment – phase one – while the patient still has their baby teeth. Phase one usually does not involve braces, but can include a different type of appliance that helps the jaw grow into place properly. We’ll follow up with phase two usually a few years later, when permanent teeth are in place. Generally phase two involves standard braces.

In order to catch early problems, we recommend that children have an orthodontic check-up no later than age seven (and so does the American Association of Orthodontists). However, if your dentist or pediatrician sees any sign that early treatment might be necessary, he or she may recommend your child visit Summit Orthodontics even sooner.

Yes, it is, and that’s part of what makes it work, says Dr. Wiggins. To find out if you are the right candidate for Invisalign treatment, the first thing we do is to take an impression of your teeth as they are now and digitize it. Using special software, we look at the current positioning of your teeth and compare it to the way your teeth should look.

Next we use special software to map out the exact path your teeth will take from the beginning of your treatment to the end. Based on the results, a set of custom aligners are created just for your teeth. Throughout the course of treatment, you will be required to wear these clear, removable aligners one at a time; each one moving your teeth closer and closer to their final, perfectly aligned position. The best thing about it all? Nobody around you will even know you are wearing braces!

Dr. Wiggins is a certified Invisalign provider in Parker, CO. If you have questions about Invisalign, or would like to find out if you are a candidate for Invisalign treatment, please give us a call.

If you recently completed treatment at Summit Orthodontics, we’d like to congratulate you! Now that your braces have been removed, Dr. Wiggins will provide—or has provided you—with retainers. After braces are removed, teeth can shift out of position if they are not stabilized. Retainers, however, always provide that stabilization. They are designed to hold teeth in their corrected, ideal positions until the bones and gums adapt to the treatment changes. Wearing retainers exactly as instructed by Dr. Wiggins is the best insurance that the treatment improvements last for a lifetime.

To learn more about the advantages of wearing retainers after your orthodontic treatment with Dr. Wiggins, give us a call!