BentleighWodonga

Twin Block Info

Twin Block

Twin Blocks are simple plates worn 24hours a day. It has 2 components, an upper and a lower plate which work togeter to posture the lower jaw forward.

The upper plate often has an expansion screw to widen the upper arch. By biting the blocks together; the muscles, bone and teeth are encouraged to adapt into an improed position, helping to correct teeth and jaw discrepancies.

When inserting the plates into your mouth, first position them on your teeth and then firmly press the appliance into place using your thumbs. Never position them with your tongue or bite into place.

When removing the plates, ease the appliance off from each side. Do not flip the appliance off your teeth with your tongue as this will result in breakages.

The plates must be worn together to be effective!

Retainer
Twin-Block

How to turn the expansion screw

When instructed, turn the expansion screw in the direction of the yellow arrow until your Orthodontist advises you to stop turning.

Wear Time

Your teeth will be a bit tender after adjustments. It is best to eat soft foods in the following days. This includes yoghurt, soup, bananas, soft pasta, rice, fish, lentils and curries.

It is important that you limit your intake of sweet and acidic foods and drinks, this includes soft drinks (Coke, pepsi etc) fruit juice, wines, and gummy lollies.

You must also avoid hard or sticky foods are they can damage your braces, or become lodged in them, so please avoid hard crusty bread, muesli bars, nuts, popcorn, chewing gum, minties, toffees.

Cleaning

Braces straighten teeth but sometimes elastics are required to correct your bite.

​Your orthodontist will let you know if you need to wear these.

​They come in packets of 200, with an Animal name representing the strength of the elastics.

​They are attached to your braces by YOU, changed a few times a day to maintain their stretch and generally worn FULL TIME. So it is important that you wear your elastics as prescribed, the more you wear them, the sooner you can stop wearing them.

Wearing elastics only half of the time means your bite moves in the right direction, then falls back when the elastics are not worn!

Misplaced your twin block?

Let us know ASAP!

If you have the other half, wear that while you wait for your appointment.

If you have just started treatment, we will likely need to take a new mould and give you a new one.

If you have been wearing your twin block for a long time now, we can sometimes transition you straight to braces

Mouthguards

Your mouth will be changing rapidly during your twin- block treatment. As such, we suggest a re-mouldable mouthguard to wear during contact sports.

We can provide one for a small fee and offer re-moulding services, alternatively “Shock-Doctor” makes great braces, and twin-block friendly mouthguards.

After your orthodontic treatment is complete, we recommend you get a custom made mouthguard from your dentist

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A smile is a curve that can set things straight