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.

Invisalign with Drs. Sellke & Reily: How, exactly, does it work? [Video]

If you've ever wondered how Invisalign treatment at Team SR Orthodontics manages to straighten teeth without using braces at all, we encourage you to check out the above video! Invisalign is a state-of-the-art system of clear, removable aligners that we proudly offer at our convenient Antioch and Grayslake offices. In addition, we have plenty of resources on our website to check out about Invisalign, or give our office a call this week to learn if this revolutionary new treatment option is right for you!

Drs. Sellke and Reily are Certified Invisalign Providers. We hope you had an enjoyable weekend! See you soon!

Ask Team SR: "What's so cool about getting braces?"

Braces, are in fact, “cool,” "hip" and, dare we say say “fun” these days. These were among the findings of a nationwide survey this year of moms whose kids are going through or have had orthodontic treatment recently. New technologies such as SureSmile and iBraces, advanced computer software, color options, and even popular celebrities—Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Danny Glover, Serena Williams—sporting stylish braces make orthodontic treatment more comfortable, fashionable and cool for today’s teens.

The study, conducted on behalf of our friends at the American Association of Orthodontists for February’s National Children’s Dental Health Month, found 86 percent of moms reporting that braces are cooler today than when they were children. Sixty-nine percent of moms also said wearing braces makes their children feel cool, and 81 percent reported their children’s experience with orthodontic treatment as either positive or extremely positive.

Different color options and the ability to change colors, for example, provide exciting ways for young patients to customize appearances. That enthusiasm helps them to feel good about their orthodontic treatment, and may contribute to the success of treatment.

Has your child visited Team SR Orthodontics for a consultation? If not, please give us call and let us help your child begin the journey to a gorgeous smile this summer!

Team SR present: Fourth of July fun facts!

Tomorrow night, Drs. Sellke & Reily, as well as our entire staff, will be busy celebrating America's 234th birthday. And because we know most of our patients love fun facts, we thought we'd provide you with some patriotic fun facts about Independence Day! Enjoy!!

- Independence Day was first celebrated in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776.

- An estimated 2.5 million people lived in America in July 1776. Today, an estimated 309 million people reside in the United States.

- The major objection to being ruled by Britain was taxation without representation, which meant that people didn't want to be taxed by a government that did not represent them.

- In 1941, Congress declared 4th of July a federal legal holiday. It is one of the few federal holidays that have not been moved to the nearest Friday or Monday.

- The stars on the original American flag were arranged in a circle to ensure that all colonies were equal.

- America's mascot, the bald eagle, can achieve speeds of up to 200 miles per hour when making a predatory dive. During a normal flight, bald eagles can travel up to 30 miles per hour.

- The American flag patch is backwards on U.S. Army uniforms. The reason? The blue field on the flag (the part with the stars) faces forward to symbolize carrying the American flag into battle.

- Someone who specializes in the history of flags is called a vexillologist.

- According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, Americans consume over 150 million hot dogs during their Independence Day festivities.

- Speaking of food, there's a 1-in-6 chance the beef on your backyard this Independence Day weekend grill came from Texas. The Lone Star State is America's leader in the production of cattle and calves.

Have a great Fourth of July weekend everyone! Have fun and careful with those fireworks!!