Ask Drs. Baby & Rojas: "What's the deal with retainers?"

If you recently completed treatment, we’d like to congratulate you! Now that your braces have been removed, we will provide—or have provided you—with retainers. After braces are removed, teeth can shift out of position if they are not stabilized. Retainers 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 is the best insurance that the treatment improvements last for a lifetime. Here are some things to remember when you receive your retainers:

* Wear your retainers full time, until the doctor instructs otherwise. Wearing your retainers at night ensures that your pearly whites won’t relapse.

* Take your retainers out when eating...and always put retainers in their case! (Most appliances are lost in school lunch rooms or restaurants.)

* Clean retainers thoroughly once a day with a toothbrush and only a small amount of toothpaste. Use warm but not hot water.

* When retainers are not in your mouth they should ALWAYS be in a retainer case.

* Retainers are breakable, so treat them with care. If retainers are lost or broken, give us a call immediately.

* Remove retainers when swimming or during any sporting activity in which the retainers could fall out and get broken or lost (cheerleading, basketball, etc.) or when you should be wearing a mouth guard (football, soccer, etc.).

We hope this helps! You can always contact our team if you have any questions!

Happy Holidays!

Ask Drs. Baby & Rojas: What is Digital Radiography?

Great question! In an effort to provide the best possible treatment to our patients, Drs. Baby & Rojas and team use digital radiography (X-rays) in our offices. Instead of using traditional film, digital radiography uses a small wireless sensor, and drastically reduces wait time at our office. But the biggest benefit to the use of digital technology is that it allows Drs. Baby & Rojas to obtain the same information, but also diagnose the size, shape and position of your teeth with great accuracy. Digital radiography also produces less radiation than conventional X-rays.

If you have any more questions about digital radiography or your treatment at our office, please ask us here on our blog, give us a call or ask us on Facebook!

Ask Drs. Baby & Rojas: “Why do people need braces, anyway?"

Your dentist may have discussed with you the benefits of having healthy teeth and proper jaw alignment. Drs. Baby & Rojas will both tell you that crooked and crowded teeth are hard to clean and maintain, which can result in tooth decay, worsen gum disease and eventually lead to tooth loss.

Other orthodontic problems, specifically concerned with how the teeth bite together can contribute to abnormal wear of tooth surfaces, inefficient chewing function, excessive stress on gum tissue and the bone that support, or misalignment of the jaw joints. Orthodontic treatment with Drs. Baby & Rojas can be less costly than the additional care required to treat dental problems that arise as a result of uncorrected orthodontic problems. For most people, a beautiful smile is the most obvious benefit of orthodontics. After your braces come off, you'll feel more self-confident. To get started with orthodontic your treatment today, please contact us to schedule a consultation.

Our offices are conveniently located in Wingham and London, Ontario. We provide orthodontic care for the following communities: London, Wingham, Lucan, Exeter, Clinton, Goderich, Seaforth, Kincardine, Hanover, Brussels, Lambeth, Middlesex County.

Have a great rest of the week!

Ask Drs. Baby & Rojas: “I got my braces. Now what?

We love when patients ask us that question! Now that you’re wearing braces, it’s just as important to maintain a good oral hygiene regimen as you did before before orthodontic treatment began.

Braces are known to trap food particles and make it difficult to brush or remove plaque, which is why Drs. Baby and Rojas recommend that you brush and floss after every meal. We also encourage you to use a proxabrush to help with the smaller areas where your toothbrush doesn’t reach. We encourage the use of fluoride rinse as well; ask Drs. Baby or Rojas for a recommendation.

When your braces are initially placed, your teeth are likely to be very sensitive. You may experience discomfort for up to 3 or 5 days, which is why we encourage you to eat soft foods during that time. Remember, the less pressure you put on your teeth, the less discomfort you will have.

You may also be thinking, “Okay, so what can I eat?” We would encourage you to avoid eating sticky, hard, crunchy or chewy snacks that can stick to your teeth.

Drs. Baby and Rojas will tell you it’s crucial to regularly check your braces for bent or loose wires and brackets. In the event of a loose/broken wire or bracket, please call one of our offices immediately to schedule an appointment for repair.

Ask Drs. Baby & Rojas: "My son is turning 7 - when should we visit for a consultation?"

Thanks for the question! Many parents assume they must wait until their child has all of his or her permanent teeth to see Drs. Baby & Rojas for a consultation, only to discover treatment would have been much easier if started earlier. Did you know the Canadian Association of Orthodontists recommends that every child have an orthodontic check-up no later than age seven?

That’s right—seven.

Ok, so what’s so great about age seven, you ask? Enough permanent teeth have arrived for our team to make a determination about whether any problems are present. The first molars have come in, providing an opportunity to check for malocclusion, or “bad bite.” Also, the incisors have begun to come in, and problems such as crowding, deep bites and open bites can be detected.

Orthodontic evaluation at an early age provides one of two positive outcomes: For some, early identification or problems will lead to easier or shorter orthodontic treatment in the future. For others, a healthy prognosis will provide immediate peace of mind.

Early evaluation, of course, may signal a need for early treatment. For some children, early treatment can prevent physical and emotional trauma. Aside from spurring on years of harmful teasing, misaligned teeth are also prone to injury and are detrimental to good oral hygiene. So, if your child is nearing his or her seventh birthday, give us a call at our London, Wingham, or Goderich orthodontic offices to schedule an appointment.

October is Oral Health Month!

In honor of Oral Health Month, Drs. Paula Baby and Jaime Rojas recommend patients avoid the following Halloween treats, or recipes with these ingredients:

• Caramel
• Nuts
• Popcorn (including un-popped kernels)
• Taffy
• Jelly beans
• Hard pretzels
• Licorice
• Bubblegum
• Ice

If you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call, ask us on Facebook, or ask Drs. Baby and Rojas during your visit this month!

Happy Thanksgiving! From Dr. Baby and Dr. Rojas

Happy Thanksgiving! It’s a day to sleep in late, eat turkey, pumpkin pie and enjoy the colours of the season. As always, Drs. Paula Baby, Jaime Rojas and our team have a lot to be thankful to be for.

How about you? What are you thankful for today? Friends? Family? A day off? Your new smile?

Drs. Baby, Rojas and team would like to wish you a safe and happy Thanksgiving. It's a big food holiday, so be careful what you eat with those braces! If you have any stories or pictures to share with us, we'd encourage you to post them below or post them to our Facebook page!

Gobble Gobble!

Ask Drs. Baby & Rojas: Now that I have braces, what can I eat?

Great question. Let’s say you just got braces and Dr. Paula Baby or Dr. Jaime Rojas have informed you that during your orthodontic treatment you will want to avoid eating anything sticky, hard, crunchy, or chewy. What does this leave for you to eat? Lettuce? Nothing?

Luckily, our friends at the American Association of Orthodontists, or AAO, created a variety of braces-friendly recipes that will allow you to enjoy your favorite treats without interfering with your orthodontic care!

Recipes include main dishes, side dishes and even yummy desserts! After all, a healthy diet provides essential nutrients and helps the patient achieve the best possible results from orthodontic treatment.

If you have any questions about the recipes listed or about the foods you should be avoiding during your orthodontic treatment, please give us a call or ask us on Facebook!

Enjoy!

20 things that can ruin your smile, from Drs. Baby & Rojas

We know your smile is important. And we know you want to keep it sparkling and looking its very best. Recently, we came across an article that suggests at least 20 things can ruin that perfect smile you have.



These include:



- Sports drinks

- Tobacco

- Coffee

- Wine

- Soft drinks

- Citrus and acidic foods

Drs. Baby & Rojas encourage you to read the rest of the article and ask us here on our blog or during your next visit to our convenient Wingham, London or Goderich office. For more tips or for general questions about your ongoing dental treatment, we invite you to ask Drs. Baby & Rojas during your next visit! We also invite you to ask us on Facebook!

Back to school with Drs. Baby & Rojas

Now that many of the schools in London, Wingham and Goderich are back in session, Drs. Baby & Rojas would like to remind all of our patients about the importance of scheduling appointments in advance. With school, clubs, sports and family duties to consider, we know that it can be challenging to find time to visit our office this fall. In order to accommodate all of our patients’ busy schedules, it is important that you plan ahead for your appointments so that we are able to provide you with an appointment time that is convenient for you.

As always, please remember to give us advanced notice if you’re unable to make your regularly-scheduled appointment. If we receive enough notice, we might be able to schedule another patient for that time. Feel free to give us a call if you have any questions, or if you would like to schedule your fall appointment.

We’ll see you soon and hope summer is winding down nicely for all our patients!

The trouble with bottled water, from Drs. Baby & Rojas

Our team at the office of Dr. Baby and Dr. Rojas know that as more families turn to bottled water and away from the traditional tap, they may be missing out on one important ingredient that most brands of bottled water fail to include: fluoride!

For more than 60 years, water fluoridation has proved to be a safe and cost-effective way to reduce dental caries. Today, water fluoridation is estimated to reduce tooth decay by 20- to 40 percent in children who have access to fluoridated toothpaste.

Bottled water, however, which remains one of the more popular drinks in the world, may not contain any fluoride, which is known to help prevent and even reverse the early stages of tooth decay. The majority of bottled waters on the market do not contain optimal levels (0.7-1.2 ppm) of fluoride, according to the American Dental Association, or ADA. Many dental health specialists suspect bottled water’s increased popularity as the culprit behind rising rates of cavities.

Because fluoride helps strengthen teeth, it is an important component of maintaining good oral health. So if bottled water is your water of choice, be sure to check the label to make sure that your brand contains fluoride. As of a 2006 decision, the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, allows bottled water containing .6 to 1.0 milligrams per liter (parts per million) of fluoride to carry a label stating that fluoridated water may reduce the risk of dental cavities or tooth decay. The ADA has backed this decision.

Of course, simply drinking fluoridated water is not a magic ticket to perfect teeth. To keep your pearly whites in tip-top shape, it’s important to brush and floss daily and avoid sugary sweets, in addition to maintaining your fluoride intake and visiting your dentist regularly.

When you need immediate care, we’re here for you.

At the office of Dr. Paula Baby and Dr. Jaime Rojas, we know true orthodontic emergencies are never convenient nor timely. If you are a patient of record, Drs. Baby and Rojas are committed to your dental health and are more than willing to see you after hours or over the weekend. As a general rule, you should call the office when you experience severe pain or when you have a painful appliance problem that you can’t take care of yourself. We’ll be able to schedule an appointment to resolve the problem. If you have a orthodontic emergency after regular office hours, please give us a call. If you are calling us after hours, please follow the emergency prompts to contact Drs. Baby and Rojas.

Common issues include:

*Broken Brace
*Broken Wires
*Tie has come off of a Brace
*Loose Expander
*Poking Wire Tie
*Sharpness Felt on the Tongue Side of a Brace
*Loss of a Separator
*Initial Soreness
*Wire Poking

You might be surprised to learn that you may be able to temporarily solve many problems yourself until you visit our office. We proudly serve patients from London, Wingham, Lucan, Exeter, Clinton, Goderich, Seaforth, Kincardine, Hanover, Brussels, Lambeth and Middlesex County.

We hope you’re all enjoying your summer.

Ask Drs. Baby & Rojas: Can germs really live on my son’s toothbrush?

Thank you for the question, and yes, absolutely. Germs are known to linger on the bristles, and you risk prolonging your sickness by continuing to use the same toothbrush. Be smart this summer - keep a spare, just in case! To protect your toothbrush from bacteria all year long, consider the following tips:

• Wash your hands before and after brushing

• Allow the brush to air dry after each use, harmful bacteria dies after being exposed to oxygen

• Store the toothbrush in an upright position to allow water to drain and dry faster

• Replace your toothbrush every 3-4 months. Worn bristles are less effective in properly cleaning your teeth, and can actually be damaging to teeth if used too long!

Hope these tips help! Feel free to call us if you have any questions or ask Dr. Baby, Dr. Rojas or our team on Facebook.

What’s on your mind?

As the summer progresses, our team at the office of Dr. Paula Baby and Dr. Jaime Rojas strive to continue writing about important topics related to orthodontics and your treatment at our office.

To help us continue doing that through the course of the summer, Drs. Baby & Rojas and team would like to ask you, our readers: what’s on your mind? What would you like to know about the always-changing and exciting field of orthodontics? What would you like us to focus on our blog in the summer months? Perhaps there’s something you’ve wanted to ask Drs. Baby or Rojas for a while? Let us know by posting here or on our Facebook page!

We hope you’re having a great week!

Are you wearing your mouthguard this summer?

With summer in full force, we thought today would be a great time to remind all our young athletes in treatment to take care of both their mouth and appliances while participating in sports - especially contact sports - this summer.

Only by using a mouth guard can kids with and without braces avoid serious sports injuries. The next time you're in for a visit with Dr. Baby or Dr. Rojas, we encourage you to ask us for a mouth guard! In addition, the American Association of Orthodontists has five quick tips for keeping kids safe during sport activities.

• Wear a helmet
• Stretch before and after a game or practice
• Wear protective eyewear
• Wear a face shield to avoid scratched or bruised skin
• Be observant, even as a spectator

We hope you're enjoying your summer, and invite you all to share your summer photos on our Facebook page!

5 habits that lead to teeth plaque, from Drs. Baby and Rojas

Nobody likes getting plaque on their teeth. Here are five other ways you can avoid that dreaded enemy of the teeth, courtesy of our friends at WebMD.

Let’s start with not brushing regularly. Brushing your teeth twice a day with a fluoride-containing toothpaste is vital to a healthy mouth. Make sure you softly brush all the surfaces of your teeth.

Next on the list is not flossing daily: a simple daily flossing between teeth clears away plaque before it can cause damage and can also clean plaque at the gum line. Plaque is known to reach the spaces between teeth.

Also, evading your dentist is probably not a great idea. Let’s say you brush and floss daily. You’re still at risk for plaque. With time, the plaque hardens and turns into tartar. Consider visiting your dentist at least twice a year, and you have a lower chance of getting cavities or losing your teeth.

You’ll also want to stop avoiding those fruits and veggies. Believe it or not, there are foods out there that play a key role in keeping plaque off our teeth. They include apples, carrots, cucumbers and other raw fruits and vegetables. You can still eat these types of fruits and veggies if you have braces, but be sure to cut them up into bite sized pieces to avoid breaking off brackets.

Finally, before you pick that candy up, think about giving in to your sweet tooth. Consuming sugary drinks or eating candy or other junk food allows sugar to stick to our teeth. The bacteria, then, becomes plaque, which turns into acid and damages our teeth. Avoiding these five bad habits keeps your plaque in check and your mouth as healthy as can be. If you have any questions, visit our web page on oral hygiene, or contact our office at 1-800-920-9798.

Hope this helps,
Drs. Baby & Rojas

What’s on your reading list this summer?

With summer almost upon us, some of us at Drs. Baby & Rojas' office ave been thinking more and more about the importance of reading. Sure it’s easy to keep putting off reading, but reading during the summer is a vital step in brain development—and it's fun!

What's on YOUR summer reading list? What are some of your all-time favorites? Out of ideas for great summer reads? Ask us for suggestions, and our staff would be happy to provide a few suggestions. You can also ask a local librarian or check out this list of 19 books to read this summer!

Happy reading! Be sure to share with us your summer picks or your all-time favorites on our Facebook page!

Access your account—any day, any time, anywhere!

Access to your account, 24/7. Sounds convenient, doesn’t it?

Did you know that patients at our office have access to their account 24 hours a day, seven days a week—all through our website? You can look up your appointments and all of your account details at your convenience, from the comfort of your own home, which is especially helpful for those teens and parents who are always on-the-go! And, because we know folks sometimes forget, you can even receive appointment reminders through email, text messages and more!

You, too, can sign up for this convenient service on our website by clicking on the "Patient Login" button on our homepage. Please give us a call if you have any questions about getting started or ask us on Facebook!

"My son is turning 7 - when should we visit for a consultation?"

Great question! Many parents assume they must wait until their child has all of his or her permanent teeth to see Drs. Baby & Rojas for a consultation, only to discover treatment would have been much easier if started earlier. Did you know the Canadian Association of Orthodontists recommends that every child have an orthodontic check-up no later than age seven?

That’s right—seven.

Ok, so what’s so great about age seven, you ask? Enough permanent teeth have arrived for our team to make a determination about whether any problems are present. The first molars have come in, providing an opportunity to check for malocclusion, or “bad bite.” Also, the incisors have begun to come in, and problems such as crowding, deep bites and open bites can be detected.

Orthodontic evaluation at an early age provides one of two positive outcomes: For some, early identification or problems will lead to easier or shorter orthodontic treatment in the future. For others, a healthy prognosis will provide immediate peace of mind.

Early evaluation, of course, may signal a need for early treatment. For some children, early treatment can prevent physical and emotional trauma. Aside from spurring on years of harmful teasing, misaligned teeth are also prone to injury and are detrimental to good oral hygiene. So, if your child is nearing his or her seventh birthday, give us a call at our London, Wingham, or Goderich orthodontic offices to schedule an appointment.

Breaking bad habits, from Drs. Baby and Rojas

At the office of Drs. Baby and Rojas, we know good dental health requires only a few minutes a day. We thought we’d provide some practical advice on how to improve your or your child’s smile between your visits with Drs. Baby and Rojas.

Start by brushing your teeth twice a day. Proper brushing techniques are an essential part of maintaining good oral health, as well as preventing gum disease. Brushing daily helps remove decay-causing plaque from tooth surfaces. Please consult Drs. Baby and Rojas if you would like us to review brushing techniques with you or your child. Flossing daily will also prevent plaque to build up between the teeth and prevent stains between your teeth. Research has shown the bacteria of gum disease has been linked to coronary artery disease, stroke, diabetes and memory loss. Lastly, we encourage you to throw away old toothbrushes and replace them every 2 or 3 months, or after an illness.

We hope this helps! If you have any further questions about any of these tips, please contact our convenient Wingham, Goderich and London offices or ask us on Facebook!