Most days at Swords Orthodontics, I find myself helping my patients by using “twin blocks”, probably the world’s most famous functional brace – that’s a brace that uses the muscles of the jaw to provide the force to move the teeth, and alter the way the muscles exert an influence over the teeth, and maybe even influence the growth of the bone beneath them.
Recently, on a single day, I had 3 patients (from various towns across Co Dublin) who had broken their twin blocks, to some extent due to bad luck, to some extent due to general neglect. This would normally be cause for some unhappiness and despair, but to be honest it was more than compensated for half an hour later, by a girl (from Skerries) who had worn her twin blocks as I explained to her and had great success with them.
I was delighted – every time I tell people “if you wear them, they will work” and I saw a string of patients that didn't follow the instructions – they didn’t wear them like I asked and not only did the braces not work, they didn’t even fit into the patients’ mouths the way they used to because they were broken!
But like that biblical story where the shepherd is overjoyed to find the one lost sheep out of a hundred, I had one patient that day who wore their brace just like I asked. And their treatment went rapidly and successfully. She was delighted too! Just imagine how the others would have felt if they had the same success.
So remember, follow the instructions and trust the braces to do the rest…