Happy Holidays From Badii Orthodontics in Orange County and Torrance CA

The 2011 holiday season is upon us. From all of us at Badii Orthodontics, our entire team would like to wish all our patients and their families the merriest of holidays and best wishes for the New Year.

No matter what your religious beliefs, the holidays are a time for fellowship and celebrating friendship, love, and family.

Shake Up Your Holiday Season and Enjoy!!

What’s your favorite part about the holidays?

What do you plan to Shake Up this year?

What are some of the things you treasure about the holidays?

5 Tips for Healthy Holiday Smiles

Orange County and South Bay Orthodontist, Dr. Kevin Badii, has the following '5 Tips for Healthy Holiday Smiles'.

October is Orthodontic Health Month, and with the holidays around the corner it’s an important time to properly care for your teeth and braces. In honor of Orthodontic Health Month, please enjoy the following tips for a healthy Halloween and Holiday Season:

Tip 1: Beggars CAN be choosers:

Select Halloween treats that are soft, including chocolate, peanut butter cups, or thinly sliced apples dipped in yogurt or chocolate sauce. It is wise to avoid any sticky, chewy, hard or crunchy foods if you have braces. Some treats to avoid are: caramel, nuts, popcorn, taffy, jelly beans, hard pretzels, licorice, bubble gum, and hard chips. These items can damage the braces, the wires, or even your teeth. And most importantly, always brush and floss your teeth after eating sweet treats.

Tip 2: Mix in ‘Smile Friendly’ foods with all the Holiday Treats

Just as there are certain foods that aid in healthy hair and skin, there are foods that will help give you a beautiful, healthy smile. Foods that are rich in fiber, such as apples and broccoli, help stimulate saliva production, which is effective in killing mouth bacteria. Raw celery, carrots, and nuts can mechanically clean teeth as you chew them, so they make good desserts or snacks. Also, probiotics, which are beneficial bacteria in certain yogurts, kefir, and tempeh, can reduce acidity and bad bacteria in your mouth.

Make sure you're getting plenty of calcium, vitamin D, phosphorus, and magnesium to help your teeth resist decay and stains and strengthen the bone that holds them.

For gums, be sure you're incorporating foods or supplements with vitamin C and omega-3 fatty acids for healing and anti-inflammatory effects.

Tip 3: Watch Out for Staining Agents

Certain foods and drinks, including: beets, red wine, cola, coffee, and most forms of tea (even many herbals), can cause tooth discoloration.

The key to preventing this is to keep your mouth super clean and avoid the buildup of plaque, which attracts stains. If possible, brush right after eating or drinking these culprit items to minimize the chance of stains setting on your teeth and to help your saliva naturally wash the stain away.

Tip 4: Sharing is Caring

Give the gift of a smile. Smiling itself has many health benefits; it positively changes your mood and relieves stress, it boosts your immune system and lowers your blood pressure, it makes you feel more attractive and helps you look younger. Smiling is a great way to make yourself stand out while helping your body to function better. Smile to improve your health, your stress level, and your attractiveness.

Tip 5: Go Beyond A Beautiful Smile

Though orthodontic treatment is often viewed as an aesthetic procedure, in reality, straight teeth have various health benefits that go far beyond a beautiful smile. Properly aligned teeth lead to better oral health because they’re easier to keep clean and bear a reduced risk for plaque buildup, tooth decay, and periodontal disease.

Happy Holidays! Feel free to check out www.BadiiOrthodontics.com for more information, or to email questions to Dr. Badii directly from the website.

"Play It Safe" and Gear Up!

Dr. Badii and Badii Orthodontics encourages kids to “Play It Safe” during organized and recreational sports.

Dr. Badii is proud to spread the message that simple and inexpensive protective sports gear – such as mouth guards – can make a difference in preventing sports injuries.

Young athletes can protect their face and smile, while playing, with the following tips from Dr. Badii:

• Wear a mouth guard. Mouth guards can help prevent jaw, mouth and teeth injuries caused by a collision or fall. For athletes with braces, discuss with your orthodontist the best type of mouth guard for your sport.
• Wear a helmet. Helmets absorb the energy of an impact, and should be worn for activities like biking, skateboarding and in-line skating. Visit the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety website to learn helmet laws in your state.
• Wear protective eyewear. Eyes are extremely vulnerable to injury during sports like soccer, baseball and hockey.
• Wear a face shield to avoid scratched or bruised skin. Hockey pucks, basketballs and racquetballs can do severe damage.

Also, keep in mind the following:

• Stretch before and after a game or practice. This can reduce the risk of pulling or straining a muscle.
• Be observant even as a spectator. Stay alert while watching a game to avoid foul baseballs and flying hockey pucks coming your way.
• Use good judgment. If an activity carries risk of dental or facial injury, gear up. Without it, a pick-up game of basketball or flag football could result in a trip to the emergency room.

Please feel free to contact Badii Orthodontics for your custom mouthguard, or for any questions.

Some of the Many Benefits of Straight Teeth

There are many reasons why people want straight teeth. Not the least of these is the fact that crooked teeth are not the most attractive feature. While a nicely aligned smile can be the part of your looks that pulls everything else together, a crooked smile can draw attention away from an otherwise striking appearance. A great smile is vital to your self-confidence, which in turn can improve your outlook on life in general.

However, the benefits of straight teeth do not end with just your appearance. Crooked teeth can interfere with proper chewing, a problem which is with you at every meal if not confronted. Good oral hygiene (such as regular brushing and flossing) can be much more difficult and ineffective with crooked teeth. When your teeth are not straight and evenly spaced, there is a much higher likelihood that there will be hard-to-reach spaces that do not receive the proper treatment from your daily cleaning routine. As a result, unwanted plaque and tartar can build up unnoticed. Over time, this can lead to such serious consequences as tooth decay, gum disease, or even tooth loss. Since no one enjoys spending time in the dentist’s chair having root canals, fillings, and oral surgery, it is important to stay on top of your oral hygiene.

At Badii Orthodontics, we specialize in creating beautiful smiles and fixing crooked teeth. Orthodontics (which comes from the Greek words orthos “straight or proper” and odons “tooth”) is the specialized field of dentistry that concerns itself with the study and treatment of irregular bites. An abnormal bite can be the result of uneven teeth, a jaw that is out of proportion or misaligned, or both. At Badii Orthodontics, we bring crooked teeth into alignment using state-of-the-art technology. Our patients do not have to sacrifice their looks in the short term to have a beautiful smile forever. We offer 100% invisible braces that are behind the teeth, to clear ceramic braces, to Invisalign.

Whether you are a parent of an adolescent with crooked teeth that need to be straightened or if you yourself are seeking improvement in your smile, we encourage visiting our office today. Please contact us to schedule your complimentary exam and consultation. The benefits are countless; you will be glad you did!

Memorial Day Tribute

This Memorial Day weekend, Badii Orthodontics, and our fellow Americans, honor those who have given their lives in service to our Great Nation. As we pay tribute to the brave men and women who died for our freedom, we also honor those who are defending our liberties around the world today. We live in freedom because our patriots are willing to serve, and many have given their lives in defense of our Nation. We pray for our men and women serving in harm's way. We pray for their safe return. And we pray for their families and loved ones, who also serve our country with their support and sacrifice. Because of their sacrifice, millions here and around the world enjoy the blessings of liberty. And wherever these patriots rest, we offer them the respect and gratitude of our Great Nation.

What is a Good Age for Children to see an Orthodontist?

It used to be that kids got braces when they were in middle school or even high school. Now it seems that children are starting orthodontics in elementary school. Why the rush? There have been studies that show that the sooner children start some kind of orthodontics, the more successful their treatment will be. Although most orthodontic problems are best treated with traditional braces, some problems need to be treated as soon as they are noticed, no matter how young a child is. Because children are rapidly growing, their bones are relatively soft and always changing. At this stage, it is easy to guide the bone and teeth growth in children through orthodontics. As every parent knows, their children grow faster at some ages than at others. Therefore, orthodontists want to time their treatments for the ages when the child is mature enough to cooperate with treatment, and also when the bone is growing most rapidly. The optimum age for beginning treatment depends upon what the orthodontist needs to correct, but according to the American Association of Orthodontists, the best age for evaluation for orthodontics is usually age 7 because that is the age when bone growth and your child’s maturity tend to favor orthodontic treatment. A major growth spurt also takes place at puberty, and orthodontists like to take advantage of this as well. When the jaws and teeth are still growing it is much easier to move teeth and change the position and size of the jaw. Early orthodontic treatment is effective and desirable in certain situations.

Some of the problems which require early orthodontic treatment include:

- Early or late loss of baby teeth
- Difficulty in chewing or biting
- Mouth breathing
- Crowding or misplaced teeth
- Jaws that shift, and/or make sounds
- Speech difficulty
- Biting the cheek or biting into the roof of the mouth
- Teeth that meet in an abnormal way or don’t meet at all
- Protruding teeth
- Facial imbalance or asymmetry
- Grinding or clenching of teeth
- Finger sucking or other oral habits

Starting orthodontic treatment early is important because it can:

- Create room for crowded, erupting teeth
- Create facial symmetry through influencing jaw growth
- Reduce the risk of trauma to protruding front teeth
- Preserve space for unerupted teeth
- Reduce the need for tooth removal
- Reduce treatment time with braces

If you would like more information about early orthodontic treatment, the California Association of Orthodontists has a great brochure called Bite Down Early that you can view online or order a copy to be sent to your home. With an early orthodontic evaluation, you’ll be giving your child the best opportunity for a healthy, beautiful smile that will last a lifetime.

Why Choose an Orthodontist When Considering Orthodontic Treatment?

Why choose an Orthodontist when considering orthodontic treatment? This video, created by the American Association of Orthodontists, discusses why you should choose an orthodontist when considering orthodontic treatment.

An orthodontist completes several years of extensive training beyond dental school to become an expert in straightening teeth and correcting jaw problems. A general dentist who does braces may see only a handful of orthodontic cases a year, mixed in with all their drilling and filling. An Orthodontist only practices orthodontics and treats hundreds of orthodontic cases a year. An Orthodontist is a specialist in ‘Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthodopedics’, the same way a Cardiologist or Neurologist is a specialist in their respective fields. When it comes to the challenges and complexities of orthodontic treatment, most people prefer a specialist that’s well trained and experienced. You wouldn’t have a general physician perform open heart surgery or brain surgery on you.

Dr. Badii is an orthodontist, and you will receive the best orthodontic care possible at Badii Orthodontics.