The advantage of SureSmile

Does the thought of having braces bring you down? The team at Adams Orthodontics understands that one of the biggest concerns for orthodontic patients with braces is the length of their treatment.

But you’re in luck, because Dr. Blair Adams specializes in SureSmile, high-tech braces that are revolutionizing the orthodontic industry. SureSmile, which combines digital 3-D imaging, has computer-aided treatment planning and customized archwires to straighten teeth about 40 percent faster than traditional braces. The SureSmile program calculates the exact shape and pattern of the teeth and bends and cuts the braces wires, with more precision than traditional braces.

There are three steps. First, Dr. Adams identifies the initial tooth position with the patented OraScanner, a wand with a tiny camera attached. The OraScanner creates a precise 3-D digital model of your mouth, which is then uploaded into software that lets Dr. Adams view your mouth and teeth from any angle. Next, the SureSmile system allows us to create your entire treatment plan prior to treatment, using special computer software to analyze the 3-D model of your mouth and develop a custom archwire treatment. Finally, SureSmile’s robotic technology bends Shape Memory Alloy archwires, which can “remember” your prescription.

Results

With SureSmile’s specially programmed archwires, your teeth move more directly into their intended positions. The result for our patients is shortened treatment time and a more comfortable experience in braces.

Once the braces are on it’s only a matter of time before they are taken off revealing beautiful, straight, healthy teeth. With traditional braces a patient is expected to schedule 18 to 20 office visits over two years. With SureSmile, patients average seven to 10 visits and can have their braces off within half the time!

If you’re considering orthodontic treatment, please contact Adams Orthodontics today!

Emergency Care with Adams Orthodontics

At Adams Orthodontics, we know orthodontic emergencies are never convenient nor timely. If you are a patient of record, Dr. Blair Adams and our team 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 learn how you may be able to solve the problem yourself, or, if you cannot, how to contact Dr. Adams and team.

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.

Don't forget those regular dental checkups!

Are you brushing and flossing daily during your orthodontic treatment? If yes, that’s great! But, don’t forget that it’s also important for you to visit your general dentist every 3-to-6 months in addition to brushing your teeth and flossing (and visiting Adams Orthodontics, of course). Regular dental checkups are important for maintaining good oral health, especially during orthodontic treatment.

Your general dentist can check for problems that might not be seen or felt, detect cavities and early signs of decay, treat oral health problems early and show you how to properly brush and floss your teeth.

During an oral exam your dentist can check the health of your mouth, teeth, gums, cheeks and tongue. Checkups will also include a thorough teeth cleaning and polishing. If you have not been to the dentist in the last six months, let us know during your next visit and we will provide a few great references in the greater Ottawa area!

The importance of retainers

If you recently completed treatment at Adams Orthodontics, we’d like to congratulate you! Now that your braces have been removed, Dr. Blair Adams 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. Adams 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. Adams, please read this helpful article about retainers from KidsHealth or give us a call!

Have you been to the dentist lately?

Are you brushing and flossing daily during your orthodontic treatment? If yes, that’s great! But, don’t forget that it’s also important for you to visit your general dentist every 3-to-6 months in addition to brushing your teeth and flossing (and visiting Adams Orthodontics, of course). Regular dental checkups are important for maintaining good oral health, especially during orthodontic treatment.

Your general dentist can check for problems that might not be seen or felt, detect cavities and early signs of decay, treat oral health problems early and show you how to properly brush and floss your teeth.

During an oral exam your dentist can check the health of your mouth, teeth, gums, cheeks and tongue. Checkups will also include a thorough teeth cleaning and polishing. If you have not been to the dentist in the last six months, let us know during your next visit and we will provide a few great references in the greater Ottawa area!

How to prevent bad breath, with Adams Orthodontics

Dr. Blair Adams, your Ottawa orthodontist, recognizes that many of our patients are concerned about bad breath, or halitosis. While some cases of bad breath are persistent (chronic bad breath), generally bad breath is transient, and can be prevented.

We recently came across this helpful video about bad breath and thought it was worth sharing with our patients. The video explains what might cause bad breath and some ways that it can be avoided. In most instances, bad breath can be prevented by practicing common oral hygiene techniques that you have probably heard us emphasize during a visit to Adams Orthodontics, such as brushing and flossing daily. We encourage you to watch this video for additional tips on how to keep bad breath at bay. Enjoy!

The Braces Glossary: Your Guide to Brackets, Bands, and More!

If you ever sustain damage to your braces and need to call Adams Orthodontics, we can help you more effectively if you can tell us exactly which piece is in trouble! Here’s a handy diagram and corresponding list of all the parts that make up your braces.



Elastic Tie: Tiny rubber band that fits around the bracket to hold the archwire in place.

Archwire: The main wire that acts as a track to guide the teeth along. It's changed periodically throughout treatment, as teeth move to their new positions.

Loop in Archwire: Frequently used for closing space left by an extraction. Many archwires don't have a loop.

Bracket: Small attachment that holds the archwire in place. Most often, a bracket is cemented directly onto the tooth's surface, eliminating the need for a band.

Headgear Tube: Round, hollow attachment on the back bands. The inner bow of the headgear fits into it.

Coil Spring: Fits between brackets and over archwire to open space between teeth.

Tie Wire: Fine wire that is twisted around the bracket to hold the archwire in place.

Band: A thin ring of metal fitted around a tooth and cemented in place. The band provides a way to attach the brackets to the tooth.

Hook: Welded or removable arm to which elastics (rubber bands) are attached.

Elastic (Rubber Band): Small rubber band that is hooked between different points on the appliance to provide pressure to move the teeth.

Hope this helps! Give us a call if you have any questions!

Dr. Adams top ten tips for keeping your smile healthy and sparklin'

Keeping your teeth clean is more important than ever when you have braces. Food bits have more spots than usual to hide in your mouth, so you must be diligent in order to avoid bad breath, swollen gums, discolored teeth and cavities. If you remove plaque regularly during treatment, you'll experience better results and shorter treatment time. Keep plaque at bay with these top ten tips:

1. One tooth at a time. When you brush, take time with each individual tooth – at least 10 seconds each – and pay careful attention to the spots where your teeth touch your braces.

2. It’s all about the angles. Brush the tops of your teeth and braces with your brush angled down toward where they meet. Brush the bottoms of your teeth and braces with your brush angled up.

3. The tooth, the whole tooth, nothing but the tooth. While the front surface of your teeth may seem like the most logical to clean, it’s equally important to clean the inner surface of your teeth (tongue side) as well as the chewing surface. And be sure to clean along your gum line – a key spot for plaque buildup.

4. Step 1: eat, step 2: clean. While you’re in treatment, it’s important to brush after every meal. Bits of food can easily get caught between braces and teeth, and these food bits interact with bacteria in your mouth to cause decay. The longer food is in contact with your teeth, the greater opportunity for plaque to form. If you are eating somewhere that you can’t brush, thoroughly rinse your mouth with water.

5. Like a Boy Scout, always be prepared. The easiest way to be sure you can brush after every meal is to get in the habit of taking a toothbrush, toothpaste and floss with you wherever you go. Designate a special container just for your teeth-cleaning tools and keep it in your purse, backpack, or laptop case.

6. Remove the moving parts. If you have elastic bands or headgear, remove these parts before you brush or floss.

7. Fluoride is your friend. Fluoride helps prevent cavities. Be sure to brush with fluoride toothpaste, and rinse with fluoride mouthwash.

8. Pointy brushes reach tiny places. Interproximal brushes (sometimes called proxa brushes or interdental brushes) are cone-shaped and come in very handy for reaching spots around your braces that standard brushes can’t.

9. Find the floss for you. Regular floss works for some patients, but others find it easier to work with a floss threader, which helps you get the floss into tight places. Other patients like an all-in-one product called Superfloss, which comes with a stiff end for easy threading, a spongy section for cleaning wide spaces, and regular floss for narrow spaces.

10. Make time for the pros. It’s your job to take care of the everyday cleaning. But make sure to visit your dentist regularly while in treatment, to get the deep, thorough cleaning that only a professional can provide. If you need help finding the right Dentist for you, feel free to contact our office - we’d love to help!

Hey, Moms! Have you signed the Moms for Mouth Guards Pledge?

At Adams Orthodontics, we care about your beautiful smile, and we want to help keep you protected from sports injuries that can be damaging to your pearly whites. As a way of ensuring that children are using proper facial protection equipment the American Association of Orthodontics (AAO) has introduced the Moms for Mouth Guards Pledge.

Mouth guards are vital to protecting your teeth from sports related injuries while participating in sports, such as football, soccer, baseball, hockey, and basketball, to name a few. The Moms for Mouth Guards Pledge is a way for moms nationwide to make a commitment to protecting their child’s smile from facial injuries.

In past entries, we’ve discussed the importance of using facial protection when exercising to prevent injury. Today, we at Adams Orthodontics we are inviting moms to take action by visiting the Moms for Mouth Guards website and taking the Moms for Mouth Guards Pledge.

Have a safe week everyone!

- Your friends at Adams Orthodontics

Meet Our Orthodontist

Dr. Blair Adams grew up in Ottawa and has been practicing orthodontics here since 1982. After receiving an Honours B.Sc. in Biology from Carleton University, he attended dental school at the University of Western Ontario. At Western, Dr. Adams met and fell in love with a certain Kinesiology student named Joselyn. They were married in Joselyn’s hometown of Oakville the day after he received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree.

The newlyweds migrated to Vancouver, where Dr. Adams practiced general dentistry for three years. He was then accepted into the orthodontic school at Tufts University in Boston. While they were living in Boston, their daughter, Nicola, was born.

Dr. Adams graduated first in his class from Tufts with a Diploma in Orthodontics. He was granted the status of Certified Specialist in Orthodontics by the Province of Ontario and returned to his hometown to open his practice. Dr. Adams became a member of the Royal College of Dentists of Canada and is also a member of many other dental and orthodontic professional associations.

He continues to pursue a very active interest in orthodontic advances and always strives to bring his patients the “best of the newest” technologies.