A frequent question I get from many of my patients is - Doctor, is there anything that we can do so that my treatment gets completed early? So here I am, addressing a key concern of many of my patients, and I bring to you a few pointers that you can follow to get your orthodontic treatment completed well in time.

First of all, it is important to maintain your appointment schedule strictly. Your each visit is carefully planned by your orthodontist according to your tooth movements. It is important to understand that missing an appointment can add a lag period of a few weeks, or in some cases, months to your overall treatment time, where, for that duration no tooth movement is actually occurring and that time period is getting wasted and thus adding to your total treatment duration.

Next, appliance maintenance in terms of loosening of a bracket (i.e. braces), opening of wire, or missing wire or rubber band or wire by avoiding hard and sticky food is also required because it will lead to increase treatment time. And you should inform your orthodontist immediately if any above minor problem occurs, rather than waiting for your next appointment.  

Rubber bands or elastics are useful for settling the bite, to bring upper and lower jaw in proper position and for settling of teeth in proper occlusion. So you must wear elastics prescribed by your orthodontist. Not wearing the elastics at all or not wearing them for proper time period can increase your treatment time, as it takes longer time for the teeth to settle without them.

Proper oral hygiene maintenance by careful brushing of your teeth as shown by your orthodontist is important, more so when you have braces on. It prevents food lodgement in between braces, thus there is less friction between your teeth and braces; due to which the braces are able to move your teeth to the desired position faster; in this way reducing overall treatment time. 

When you are able to follow these instructions diligently; I can assure you that much of the unnecessary delay is omitted from your treatment; also tooth movement occurs in a quick manner.