FAQ's about Incognito (Hidden) Braces

There are many questions about Incognito Braces - the braces placed behind the teeth so no one knows that you are wearing them.  We thought, who better to answer your questions than someone with first hand knowledge as an Incognito patient.  The following are some great questions and answers provided by Incognito Jacquie - a graduate of Incognito treatment!   

What are Incognito Hidden Braces? They’re braces that straighten your teeth, but they’re placed behind your teeth so no one knows you’re wearing them.

Why would someone get Incognito Hidden Braces? People who want to have straight teeth without anyone knowing they’re getting their teeth straightened would consider getting Incognito Hidden Braces.

Who typically wears Incognito Hidden Braces? People around the world of various ages, from adolescent to adult, wear Incognito Hidden Braces, because they do not want people to know they’re getting their teeth straightened.  The system works with crowns and other dental work, and I’ve seen it used on many types of misaligned teeth, including those needing extractions and/or surgery.

Some people choose hidden braces due to their career (police officers, models, construction workers, actors, executives, etc.). Other people are like me; they had braces as a kid, and their teeth moved, so they want to straighten their teeth without anyone knowing it’s happening. 

Are Incognito Hidden Braces really invisible? Well, this is a tough question.  I’m wearing Incognito Hidden Braces, and they’re not visible in my daily life.  When I smile, speak and eat, no one notices them. 

If I yawn really wide and someone’s staring at my mouth for some reason, he/she may see them from the side, or if looking down or up at the inside of my mouth.  Oh, and when something’s really funny, I put my head back when I laugh, and they’re visible then. 

Other than that, the braces remain hidden….unless I want to show them off!

Do Incognito Hidden Braces work on all teeth? This system is designed to work with a wide range of misaligned teeth, but everyone has different comfort levels.  Some limitations would be people whose teeth have not fully emerged, those who grind their teeth and people who cannot breathe through their nose, which is essential during the bonding process.

How long do people have to wear Incognito Hidden Braces? Every patient brings a unique dental situation to his/her doctor, so treatment times vary regardless of what system is used.  In general, the treatment time for Incognito Hidden Braces (lingual braces) is similar to having braces on the outside of your teeth (labial braces).

How are Incognito Hidden Braces different from braces on the outside of your teeth?                  

1)     Invisible – They’re on the back of my teeth, so if I move my head back pretty far when I laugh, that’s really the only time people see them unless I show them off.

2)     Custom-made – Unlike the mass produced brackets that go on the front of your teeth, each bracket and wire is custom-made for each Incognito Hidden Braces patient’s teeth.  When my brackets went in, they fit better than a glove…they fit so snugly.

3)     Gold – They’re made of a gold alloy for precision (not silver-looking metals or ceramic)

4)     Comfortable – Since the brackets are custom-made, they’re very low profile.  It really doesn’t take very long to adjust to them.  Plus tongues heal quickly.  I remember my cheeks hurting quite a lot with traditional (labial) braces when I was young.

What are Incognito Lingual Braces? You may have heard Incognito Hidden Braces referred to as Incognito Lingual Braces.  Lingual is dental jargon meaning on the tongue side of your teeth.  So Incognito Lingual Braces are appliances (braces) fixed behind your teeth, closest to your tongue.  In short, Incognito Hidden Braces are lingual braces.

Do I have to have braces on all of my teeth? There are various options available to people who require minor adjustments.  It would really be up to your orthodontist to help you choose the best solution to give you the most optimal results. Some people just need six brackets on the top and bottom, some need eight on each arch, and others need brackets on all of their teeth.

Is it difficult to clean your teeth with Incognito Hidden Braces? I was genuinely surprised at how easy my brackets have been to clean, and it is quite similar to braces on the outside of your teeth. I think it’s because they cover so much of my teeth. 

I have to make sure I floss, and I find the tree brush very useful for cleaning between the brackets.  You may want to consider a water pick as well. Flossing takes forever because you have to thread behind the wire and between each bracket, but it’s sooo worth it!  If you don’t, I hear that your gums will swell behind your teeth.

Do Incognito Hidden Braces affect the way you talk? You will have to adjust the way you speak when you get Incognito Hidden Braces.  Your tongue will no longer touch your teeth like it used to.  Try talking slower and practice The Rainbow Passage. 

What’s it like to eat with Incognito Hidden Braces? At first, you’ll want to eat anything you can swallow without chewing.  Think spoon-friendly foods like shepherd’s pie, chilli, curry, pudding, apple sauce, etc.  I even contemplated baby food just because I wanted some fruit!  Your teeth won’t touch at first (this is normal), so you won’t be able to chew too much.

I found the hardest thing to get used to was flipping food around in my mouth to get ready to swallow.  Your tongue will scrape along the brackets, and it feels quite differently.  

Choose your foods carefully as you don’t want to break a bracket off (no gum, no nuts, nothing hard), be prepared to chew slower, and suck food out of your brackets.  It seriously isn’t that bad, it is just something to get used to (plus no one sees the food stuck in there, which is good).

Do your teeth hurt when you get Incognito Hidden Braces? If your experience mirrors mine, when your braces first go on, they don’t hurt.  It’s the next day and the day after when your teeth are quite tender.  For me, it was my tongue that hurt the most, particularly closest to the back molars.  I expected this, as I heard this from other patients.

Why are they made of gold? Incognito Hidden Braces are made of a gold alloy to ensure precision.  Since the brackets are custom-made, you’re going to want to ensure they brackets don’t bend during treatment and that they fit to you teeth when they’re bonded.

When is the best time to get Incognito Hidden Braces? Assuming the patient is a candidate for Incognito Hidden Braces, it is really up to the patient to determine when to get braces.  Most orthodontists do not require a referral from a dentist or other oral health professional to arrange a consultation.

Considering you will need time to adjust to your braces, I would suggest avoiding any important speaking engagements for about two weeks.  I personally did not have to take any time off of work due to discomfort; I did miss some time to get bonded, though.

What’s the best thing about wearing Incognito Hidden Braces? I love that I can smile freely throughout my treatment, and no one knows I’m wearing braces unless I tell them.  It’s so liberating! 

From what I understand, whether you wear braces on the outside of your teeth (labial) or braces on the inside (lingual), your front teeth straighten first.  So instead of hiding those straight teeth behind metal or ceramic brackets, you can show off your smile throughout treatment.  I honestly forget I’m wearing them, and it’s only three weeks in to treatment when I’m writing this.

Did you ever want to get your Incognito Hidden Braces taken off? I’ve only had them on for a few weeks, so I haven’t really gone through this. The only reason I can see why anyone would want them off is that they didn’t give themselves time to adjust to the braces.  Make sure you know what you’re getting in to, and if you speak for a living (as a teacher, news anchor, etc.) book some time off work if necessary to adjust.

How are you going to prevent your teeth from shifting again? There is no guarantee that my teeth will stay where they end up this time, but I asked for a permanent retainer on my top and bottom teeth.  I actually met a woman who still wears her removable retainers every night and her teeth look amazing.  I will do the same if I end up with removable retainers.

What Is a Tongue Thrust Habit?

When we are born, we all swallow with an in and out movement of the tongue.  As we grow, most of us transition to a swallowing pattern where the tongue presses against the roof of the mouth.  Some people don’t make the change and their tongue continues to push forward against or between the teeth when swallowing.  The tongue may also lie between the teeth while it is at rest.

How does a tongue thrust affect your teeth?

It doesn’t take a lot of force to move the teeth.  If there is constant pressure from the tongue pushing against your teeth it will cause your teeth to move and become crooked or spaced.  An open bite may also develop which means the teeth will not overlap normally. 

Open bite due to tongue thrust habit

-This can make chewing and swallowing more difficult

-It may be hard to chew with your lips closed

-It may cause an open-lip resting posture where it is hard for you to keep your lips closed even at rest

-An open-lip resting posture may cause gum disease

-An open-lip resting posture may also cause narrowing of the roof of your mouth and affect growth and dental development

-If you wear braces, it will take longer to straighten your teeth

-If you wore braces and your teeth were straightened, your teeth may not stay straight due to the imbalance of the muscles of the tongue, lips and cheeks.

Does everyone with a tongue thrust swallow the same?

No. Not all tongue thrusts are alike.  There are several types of tongue thrusts. Some push forward against and even sometimes through the teeth. Some push against the side teeth, some push against the top teeth and some push against the bottom teeth.

I don’t have a speech problem. Why has my orthodontist recommended I see a Speech-Language Pathologist?

Like any habit, a tongue thrust swallowing pattern is difficult to change.  A speech-language pathologist who offers myo-functional therapy can help you learn the new patterns of tongue movement you need to keep your tongue in the proper place.  Myo-functional therapy exercises given to you by a speech pathologist will help you make the necessary corrections so that it will become second nature for your tongue to rest in the proper place and for you to swallow correctly day and night.

How difficult and demanding is the therapy?

It is important that you want to make the changes and are mature enough to cooperate and stick with it. Therapy requires regular, short pieces of practice involving moving your tongue in specific ways and making sounds differently.  If you are willing to do this, you can change your patterns. The speech- language pathologist will make sure you understand the exercises and how to do them, tailoring them to suit your particular needs. Your job is to practice.

But doesn't the orthodontist straighten teeth?

Yes, your orthodontist can align your teeth and give you a beautiful smile, but if your tongue patterns in swallowing and speech are still pushing on your teeth, your tongue will push your teeth out of alignment again. This is why your orthodontist will refer you to a speech-language pathologist, so that you will have greater success in re-aligning your teeth and avoiding relapse.

Help With Speech For Orthodontic Patients

For some patients, orthodontic appliances like retainers or lingual (behind the teeth) wires and brackets can cause some changes to their speech.  If this sounds like something you've been experiencing, no worries!  The more you talk, the faster you will adapt to your new appliances and your speech will improve.

With Incognito Braces (hidden braces placed behind the teeth), most patients feel like they are speaking with a lisp or that their voice sounds funny.  For these patients, we often recommend that they read the Rainbow Passage several times a day for the first few weeks with their new appliances.  This passage was developed by speech pathologists and contains many of the sounds and sound combinations found in the the English language. The Rainbow Passage is one of the most common standard reading passages to test an individual's ability to produce connected speech and correct any speech impediments.

If you have a new appliance and have noticed changes to your speech, try practicing the Rainbow Passage.  Remember, the more you talk the quicker you will adjust to your new appliance and your speech will improve - so keep talking!

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon.
There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Throughout the centuries people have explained the rainbow in various ways. Some have accepted it as a miracle without physical explanation. To the Hebrews it was a token that there would be no more universal floods. The Greeks used to imagine that it was a sign from the gods to foretell war or heavy rain. The Norsemen considered the rainbow as a bridge over which the gods passed from earth to their home in the sky.

Others have tried to explain the phenomenon physically. Aristotle thought that the rainbow was caused by reflection of the sun's rays by the rain. Since then physicists have found that it is not reflection, but refraction by the raindrops which causes the rainbows.
Many complicated ideas about the rainbow have been formed. The difference in the rainbow depends considerably upon the size of the drops; the width of the colored band increases as the size of the drops increases. The actual primary rainbow observed is said to be the effect of a super-imposition of a number of bows. If the red of the second bow falls upon the green of the first, the result is to give a bow with an abnormally wide yellow band, since red and green light when mixed form yellow. This is a very common type of bow, one showing mainly red and yellow, with little or no green or blue.

(The Rainbow Passage is a public domain text.)

When is the Best Time to Start Orthodontic Treatment?

At Surrideo Orthodontics, we take a conservative approach to the timing of orthodontic treatment. While the American and Canadian Associations of Orthodontists recommend that the initial evaluation by an orthodontist should occur around the age of 7, we are often happy to see children for their first visit at about 8-9 years of age. 

Evaluation at this early age allows us to examine front-to-back and side to side relationships.  For example, the presence of erupting incisors can indicate possible overbite, open bite, crowding or gummy smiles.  Timely screening can determine if an early start to treatment is necessary, or allow us to set up an appropriate recall schedule to monitor growth and development.  

Drs. Cohen and Yue spend a great deal of time discussing timing of orthodontic referrals with their general and pediatric dental colleagues.  This dialogue allows your child's dentist to know which issues require early intervention, and which ones can wait until your child is a little bit older.  However, if your dentist is unsure, they will likely send you early so as not to miss an important opportunity.

Early evaluation provides both timely detection of problems and greater opportunity for more effective treatment. Prudent intervention when required guides growth and development, preventing serious problems later. When orthodontic intervention is not necessary, the doctors can carefully monitor growth and development with recall appointments. Recall appointments help us to choose the most advantageous time to begin treatment and ensure the greatest results. 

Should you have any concerns or if you are unsure when to bring your child in for an orthodontic evaluation, we would be happy to schedule an initial consultation to give you a better idea of timing and ease your concerns! 

Orthodontic Retention - A Lifetime Commitment?

If you have been to our office for an orthodontic consultation, you have more than likely heard the term 'retention'.  Retention is the phase of orthodontic treatment required to keep teeth in the corrected position after they have been properly aligned with braces or Invisalign.  Without a phase of retention there is a tendency for the teeth to relapse or shift.  The teeth won't typically return completely to their initial position, but to avoid any unwanted shifting or movement, we recommend that every patient use some type of retention following orthodontic treatment. 

There are many different types of retainers and your orthodontist takes several factors into account when deciding which kind of retainer would best maintain the position of your teeth.  

Fixed Lingual Wire Retainers

These retainers are custom wires that are glued to the inside of the lower and upper front teeth.  The advantage of the lingual wire is that it is fixed on the teeth so the wearer doesn't have to remember to put it on each day. You can't lose or forget to wear the fixed retainer so there is very little concern of relapse. With the fixed retainer however, food can get trapped under the wire so the wearer has to brush and floss around the wire each day. Also, biting into hard foods can cause the wire to break or the bonding resin (glue) to come loose.  

Removable Retainers

Another type of retainer we offer our patients is a clear 'Essix' retainer which looks very similar to an Invisalign aligner. With this type of retainer, the teeth are fixed in position while wearing it. This retainer needs to be worn full time for the first three months of the retention phase. After that, night-time wear on a regular basis should keep the teeth in good alignment.


Yet another type of retainer is the 'Hawley' retainer. This retainer has an acrylic pad which fits in the roof of the mouth and a wire which can be seen on the outside of the teeth. Typically this retainer is used in between phases to maintain space or expansion for patients that require two phases of orthodontic treatment. 


Lifetime Retention

In talking with patients, your orthodontist will explain the importance of your retainer and exactly how long it should be worn. Typically, retainers are recommended to be worn all the time, 24/7, for a period of time. This can vary for each individual, but is often at least three months after the braces have been removed or Invisalign treatment has been completed.  After that, night-time retention is recommended for at least 24 months and then most patients can work their way down to wearing their retainer one or two nights a week. 

'Lifetime retention' does not mean wearing a retainer everyday for the rest of your life!  A good rule of thumb, however, is to keep in mind that some kind of retention will be required as long as you want your teeth to remain straight. 

Ongoing Professional Development at Surrideo Orthodontics

At Surrideo, we pride ourselves on staying current with the latest developments in the field of orthodontics. This March, our Doctors and staff will take part in two professional development conferences; the Alberta Society of Orthodontists conference as well as the 3M Incognito conference.

The Alberta Society of Orthodontists - Banff, AB March 9-10, 2012

Smile Design-
Aside from straightening teeth, smile analysis and smile design have become key elements of orthodontic treatment planning. Achieving a ‘balanced smile’ requires understanding the elements of smile design such as size of teeth, the relationship between the teeth and the soft tissue, and appropriate gingival display.
At the ASO conference, Dr. Mark Berkman, past-President of the Michigan Association of Orthodontists and nationally recognized educator on craniofacial growth will present an informative session on understanding the balance and aesthetics of smile design.

Class II Correction –
When Orthodontists talk about Class II correction, they are referring to what we all call “overbite”. This usually occurs when the upper teeth sit too far ahead of the lower teeth, causing a bad bite or “malocclusion”. Elastics can be used to correct this problem, but sometimes an appliance is required to adequately correct an excessive Class II bite.
At the ASO conference, Dr. Lisa Alvetro a nationally recognized orthodontist from Sidney, Ohio, will present on Forsus Class II correctors. Dr. Alvetro specializes in the use of Class II correction through the use of fixed appliances like the Forsus appliance. Her session promises to give an in-depth review of every aspect of the Forsus appliance from clinical examples to practice efficiency tips.


3M Advanced Incognito Course – Calgary, AB March 30, 2012

At Surrideo we offer the most aesthetic orthodontic options including Invisible Incognito Orthodontic Braces. These completely aesthetic custom made appliances are placed behind the teeth so that no one will know you are wearing braces.

At the Advanced Incognito Appliance System course, Dr. Adam Schulhof, an Incognito specialist, will draw from his experience to present a variety of clinical case examples. This session will focus on how to treat patients with special situations and will include valuable discussion on treatment strategies and alternatives.

When is the Best Time for Children to Start Orthodontic Treatment?

At Surrideo Orthodontics, we take a conservative approach to the timing of orthodontic treatment. While the American and Canadian Associations of Orthodontists recommend that the initial evaluation by an orthodontist should occur around the age of 7, we are often happy to see children for their first visit at about 8-9 years of age. Evaluation at this early age allows us to start treatment if necessary, or to set up an appropriate recall schedule to monitor growth and development, allowing us to choose the most advantageous time to begin treatment. Beginning treatment at the right time ensures the greatest result.

Drs. Cohen and Yue spend a great deal of time discussing timing of orthodontic referrals with their general and pediatric dental colleagues. This dialogue allows your child's dentist to know which issues require early intervention, and which ones can wait until your child is a little bit older. However, if they are unsure, they will likely send you early so as not to miss an important opportunity.
What are the benefits of early orthodontic evaluation?

Early evaluation provides both timely detection of problems and greater opportunity for more effective treatment. Prudent intervention guides growth and development, preventing serious problems later. When orthodontic intervention is not necessary, the doctors can carefully monitor growth and development and begin treatment when it is ideal.

What are some of the reasons for early treatment?
Waiting until children have all of their permanent teeth allows for the shortest, most efficient treatment - and that is our preferred treatment philosophy. However, there are instances when early intervention can provide huge benefits. Some of these situations can include:
 Creating room for teeth that are so crowded, they will be completely blocked from erupting into the mouth
 Creating facial symmetry through influencing jaw growth
 Reducing the risk of trauma to protruding front teeth
 Preserving space for unerupted teeth
 Reducing the need for tooth removal
 Reducing treatment time with braces

Are you a candidate for orthodontic treatment?
Orthodontics is not merely for improving the aesthetics of the smile; orthodontic treatment improves bad bites (malocclusions). Malocclusions occur as a result of tooth or jaw misalignment. Malocclusions affect the way you smile, chew, clean your teeth or feel about your smile.

Why should malocclusions be treated?
According to studies by the American Association of Orthodontists, untreated malocclusions can result in a variety of problems:
 Crowded teeth are more difficult to properly brush and floss, which may contribute to tooth decay and/or gum disease.
 Protruding teeth are more susceptible to accidental chipping.
 Crossbites can result in unfavorable growth and uneven tooth wear.
 Openbites can result in tongue-thrusting habits and speech impediments.
Ultimately, orthodontics does more than make a pretty smile—it creates a healthier you.