I had a patient in today who lost his brace. I asked him what happened.
“I took my brace out and tucked it into the waistband of my football shorts”
Me: “…and then you played a game of football?”
He: “No, I ate a packet of biscuits”
And when he’d finished the pack of biscuits he went to put the brace back in, but it wasn’t there any more.”
I’m not a nutritionist, so I can’t comment with any authority about the merits of eating a pack of biscuits between meals, but if you have a brace that you’re meant to wear then take care of it.
In practical terms, for the replacement brace I had to take a new record of his teeth and then set our laboratory to work on it. It was going to be a couple of weeks at least before we would get it back to fit it for him and then it turns out that he will be on holiday (pretty common this time of the year) so his orthodontic treatment might be interrupted for the best part of a month and at that length of time between taking a record of his teeth and fitting the brace there is a chance that the teeth will move a bit and the new orthodontic appliance won’t fit….and then we have to do it all again.
When your brace isn’t in your mouth the only other place in the galaxy it should be is in your brace box.
Get a marker or a sticker and write a name and phone number on it so that if it does get lost and then gets found by someone then at least they can try to contact you and get it back to you.
And if you have a problem with your brace, don't wait to the next scheduled appointment - get on to Swords Orthodontics right away.
Don't not wear the brace.