Veneers or Braces: Which Is Best for a Straight Smile?
La Habra/Chino Hills, CA – If you’ve been living with a less-than-ideal smile and you’ve decided it’s time to make...
Read MoreOrthodontics, also sometimes referred to as dentofacial orthopedics, is a specialized form of dentistry focusing on the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of dental and facial abnormalities. It goes much beyond just making straighter smiles, but also creates harmonious bites and better facial symmetry.
Every orthodontist is a dentist, but not every dentist is an orthodontist. They both start in the same place – dental school, but upon graduation an orthodontist goes on to an additional two to three years of training to gain their specialty designation. At Gire Orthodontics, our orthodontists are also board certified, which means they have gone even a step further to show their commitment to the highest standards of orthodontic care.
The American Association of Orthodontists recommends that children visit an orthodontist by the age of seven. However, even if your child doesn’t visit us for the first time until later, or even if you’re an adult seeking treatment, any age is the right age to improve your smile! One in five patients today is over the age of 21 so orthodontics isn’t just for children. However, the younger we can start the easier and more efficient treatment may be.
Braces are the appliances we use to guide your teeth to their new locations. Today, there are more options than ever before to choose from:
Treatment times depend on several factors such as age at treatment, type of treatment chosen, and severity of the malocclusion. Every person’s mouth is different and will respond to treatment differently so there isn’t a one size fits all timeline for treatment.
Orthodontic treatment shouldn’t be painful, however, it isn’t without a bit of discomfort. This is especially true in the first few days after your braces are placed as your mouth is getting used to the appliances.
While in orthodontic treatment, it is important to pay close attention to your oral health to ensure your smile stays healthy enough for treatment. Brush three times a day, or after every meal, and floss at least once a day. If you have questions about how to properly brush and floss with your braces on our staff is happy to help.
Just because you are visiting your orthodontist regularly doesn’t mean you can skip out on your regular dental visits. Your braces can create nooks and crannies where food can get stuck, leading to bacteria that can cause cavities and gingivitis. Dental issues can set your orthodontic treatment back so it’s important to visit your dentist regularly to ensure your treatment can stay on track.
Your braces shouldn’t interfere too much with your daily life especially after you’ve gotten used to them. There is an adjustment period to wearing braces, however, you don’t have to stop playing sports or your favorite instrument because you’re in orthodontic treatment.
Many people mistakenly believe braces are only for cosmetic purposes only, but their benefits go far beyond a prettier smile. A straight smile isn’t just more attractive, it’s healthier too. Orthodontic treatment can prevent future dental problems that might otherwise arise from a crooked, crowded, or misaligned smile.
Call our office and our staff will be happy to help you schedule your next appointment.
You are never too old to get the smile of your dreams! While the recommended age to visit an orthodontist is seven, you can begin your orthodontic journey at any age. In fact, today nearly a quarter of orthodontic patients are adults.
At your first appointment we will take images of your smile, including X-rays, and Dr. Gire will do a physical examination. These pieces work together to show Dr. Gire a complete image of your smile so that he can craft a treatment plan to meet your specific needs. He will discuss any issues he finds, and go over treatment options if treatment is in fact indicated.
Most dental insurances will cover a portion of the cost of braces, however, this is specific to your individual plan. Before agreeing to treatment, be sure you understand what your insurance will cover, and what will be your obligation.
We proudly serve patients at two convenient locations, making it easy for you to access expert orthodontic care close to home.
La Habra/Chino Hills, CA – If you’ve been living with a less-than-ideal smile and you’ve decided it’s time to make...
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La Habra / Chino Hills, CA — If you’ve been thinking about straightening your teeth but haven’t taken the first...
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La Habra / Chino Hills, CA — A confident, healthy smile can make a powerful difference at any age. Dr....
Read MoreTake control of your smile journey today with our expert orthodontic care.
Gire Orthodontics
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to