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With the holidays just around the corner, we decided to have a little fun with one of the oldest and well-known Christmas poems around, the classic "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  Legend says that the original version of the poem was written by Clement Clarke Moore on Christmas Eve in 1822 during a sleigh ride home from Greenwich Village after buying a turkey for his family.

Our orthodontic version, on the other hand, was inspired by our love of the holidays and our desire to keep things fun for our patients. We hope you enjoy it . . . Happy Holidays from all of us at Bel Air Orthodontics!

With the busy holiday season upon us, we'd like to remind everyone about the importance of maintaining your orthodontic appointments. We understand that the hustle and bustle of daily activities, holiday shopping, and family responsibilities can often leave your calendars full and your energy drained. Remembering your orthodontic appointment is just one of many obligations, and we appreciate your efforts to keep your appointments as scheduled.

Access Your Account - Any Day, Any Time, Anywhere

Whether you're in pretreatment guidance, active treatment or retention,  keeping track of  your appointments is important to the success of your orthodontic care.  At Bel Air Orthodontics, we're doing our best to make that easy for you. Did you know that patients at our office have access to their appointment information 24 hours a day, seven days a week? From our website's Patient Portal, you can look up your appointments, access your account details, and establish email and/or text reminder preferences with a touch of the screen or a click of the mouse. If you haven't already signed up for this convenient service, simply call to provide us with your email contact information.

Setting Up Your Email And/Or Text Reminder Preferences

If you haven't already accessed our portal, setting up you email and/or text appointment reminders is simple. You must first establish a Patient Portal account. To access the portal, visit our website and click on the patient portal tab in the upper right corner of the homepage. You will be prompted for a user name and password. To established an account, simply follow the easy online prompts. Once you are logged into the portal, your email and text preferences can be updated or changed at the Account Setting Tab. You'll receive two email and/or text reminders prior to your scheduled appointment.

To Stay On Track - Plan Ahead

To stay on track with your treatment, remember to plan ahead and schedule your next appointment before leaving the office. After-school appointments are typically filled a month or more in advance so scheduling ahead will help you find a day and time that  best suits your needs. While some orthodontic procedures have special time requirements, we'll do our very best to find an appointment time that is convenient for you. As always, please remember to give us advance notice if you're unable to make your regularly scheduled appointment. Early notification allows us to offer your reserved time slot to other patients and permits us to effectively accommodate your busy schedule.

If you have any questions regarding our online patient portal or appointment scheduling, feel free to give us a call. We hope you have a great holiday season!

If you recently completed treatment with Bel Air Orthodontics, we'd like to congratulate you! Now that your braces have been successfully removed, Dr. Godwin will or has provided you with retainers.

After braces are removed, your 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, says Dr. Godwin, is the best insurance that the treatment improvements last for a lifetime.

To learn more about retainers, the advantages of wearing retainers after your orthodontic treatment, and how to properly care for them, visit the Retainer Instructions section of our website.

Halloween is a fun time of year, but before you head out to trick-or-treat, Dr. Godwin would like to offer a few tips for keeping your braces healthy and happy.  While Halloween treats are tempting, it's important to remember that many can cause havoc for trick-or-treaters with braces.  Treats that are sticky, chewy, hard or crunchy can potentially cause damage to braces, clear aligners, and other orthodontic appliances.  In addition to patient discomfort, a broken bracket or loose wire may prolong treatment and require additional appointments.

The team at Bel Air Orthodontics knows how hard it is to avoid all Halloween treats, so we encourage you to enjoy braces-friendly alternatives rather than feel that you are missing out on all the fun.  Dr. Godwin recommends that a few sweets can be okay occasionally, provided that you remember to brush and floss after eating.  Check out our frighteningly-good Halloween recipes and braces-friendly tips below so that you can enjoy the holiday and still be on pace to achieve your healthy, beautiful smiles.

Braces-Friendly Treats

In general, orthodontic patients should look for foods that are soft and easy to chew.  Soft, melt-in-your-mouth chocolates, peanut butter cups, milk shakes, gelatin, ice cream treats, and most soft cookies and cakes are good examples of braces-friendly treats.

Treats to Avoid

Patients undergoing orthodontic treatment should avoid treats that are sticky, hard, chewy or crunchy, such as caramel, nuts (including candies that contain nuts), licorice, jelly beans or taffy, hard pretzels, bubblegum, candy corn, and popcorn.

Here Comes The Good Stuff!

Now that you know the do's and don'ts, here are some fantastic recipes courtesy of the American Association of Orthodontists and The Braces Cookbooks, perfect not only for patients with braces, but everyone looking for a yummy homemade treat!  That way no one will feel left out this Halloween, and your party will be a monster success. To scare up your own Halloween party, try these recipes that are easy on your orthodontic hardware:

Downloadable recipes courtesy of the American Association of Orthodontists:  

• Mummy Pizza Biscuits-1
• Scary-Skull-Ghastly-Ghost-Cookies
• Spooky-Spider-Web-Bean-Dip

Even-More-Fun-Orthodontic-friendly-Halloween-Recipes

Just follow the above link for the full list of recipes below.

• Frightful Finger Cookies
• Pumpkin Cookie Pops
• Goblin Goodies
• Graveyard Shakes
• Halloween Parfait
• Mounds of Brains Cookies
• Spider Bites
• Goblin's Gooey Apples
• Jack-O-Lantern Brownie . . . Enjoy!!

Have a great braces-friendly recipe you'd love to share? Send it to us at info@belairortho.com.