What do you love about Team SR?

Team SR, serving Antioch and Grayslake, IL and surrounding areas, loves hearing about your experience with Drs. Sellke and Reily and staff! Whether you’ve just come in for a consultation or your family has been visiting our office for years, we’d love to hear your feedback. You can tell us by posting on our Facebook page, or you can give us a call!

Thank you,

-Team SR

Ask Drs. Sellke and Reily: How can Invisalign® benefit my oral health?

When considering treatment options, patients often ask us how Invisalign treatment is so different than traditional braces. Well, there are more reasons to smile about Invisalign with Team SR than you may know. Invisalign is a series of removable aligners that are nearly invisible, and besides straightening your teeth, can improve your oral health. Here’s how:

Healthy gums: Straight teeth allow a close fit for gums. This lessens the gum stress that is caused by crowded or widely spaced teeth, thus also reducing red and swollen gums.

Easy cleaning: Invisalign is removable, therefore brushing and flossing is easier and you are able to maintain a healthy mouth. These habits are vital to avoiding tooth decay, plaque and even gum disease.

Improved speech and chewing: Properly-aligned teeth don’t have the discomfort or compound speech impediments that can be caused by crowded teeth or a deteriorating jawbone.

If you have any questions about Invisalign, just ask Drs. Sellke and Reily the next time you’re in for an appointment. Or, you may post your question on our Facebook page! You can also read this article for more information on Invisalign and your oral health.

Team SR, supporting Moms for Mouth Guards

Hey, Moms! Have you signed the Moms for Mouth Guards Pledge?

Here at Team SR, we care about your pearly whites, and we want to help keep you protected from sports injuries that can be damaging to your beautiful smile. As a way of ensuring that children are using proper facial protection equipment, our friends at the American Association of Orthodontics have introduced the Moms for Mouth Guards Pledge.

Drs. Sellke and Reily will tell you that mouth guards are vital to protecting your teeth from sports related injuries while participating in sports, such as football, soccer, baseball, hockey and basketball, just to name a few. The Moms for Mouth Guards Pledge is a way for moms nationwide to make a commitment to protecting their children’s smile from facial injuries.

We’ve discussed the importance of using facial protection in the past. Today, we thought we’d invite moms to take action by visiting the Moms for Mouth Guards website and taking the Moms for Mouth Guards Pledge. Have a safe week everyone!

Ask Drs. Sellke and Reily: What’s so bad about nail biting?

We’ve all heard that biting your nails is an awful habit, but you many wonder- really- what’s so bad about it? Recently, Team SR found an interesting article that discusses how biting your nails affect your teeth and oral health.
Nail biting, also known as Onychophagia, is a common habit among various age groups, including primarily children, teens and young adults. Nail biting is generally triggered by stress and most often decreases with age. That being said, nail biting is unsanitary, unattractive, as well as unhealthy for your teeth!

Here’s why:

• It’s unsanitary. Your nails are dirty, almost twice as dirty as your fingers! Hence, biting your nails is just asking for germs and bacteria.
• No good things come to your teeth. Nail biting causes your teeth to constantly be chewing, which is not good for them. This excessive motion wears your teeth down faster than a non-nail biter’s and puts a large amount of stress on your front teeth- contributing to teeth misalignment.
• Braces don’t love it either. Braces already put pressure on teeth, nail biting ads unnecessary pressure, further stressing your teeth and weakening their roots.
• It can be costly. Nail biting can result in up to $4,000 in additional dental bills over one lifetime, according to the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD). Yikes!

What can you do about it?

Now that you know how harmful nail biting can be, it’s time to take action to break your nail biting habit. Try to be conscious of your fingernails and to keep them looking good- this will help you resist the temptation. Ask Drs. Sellke and Reily or visit this article for more tips on how to break a nail biting habit.