Dr. Haug told me to do warm and cold water rinses. Why and what does that do?

The warm and cold water rinses are needed when a patient is in thermal archwires.  They assist in activating the archwires.  The warm water rinse keeps the archwire in a perfect form, which is the track we want the teeth to follow, while the cold water rinse resets the archwire.  You will need to continue doing your rinses until you are out of thermal archwires.  A warm drink would count as your rinse on your warm day, while a cold drink would also count as a rinse on your cold day.  You would alternate warm and cold each day, 3-4 times a day.  One day is a warm water rinse, the following is a cold water rinse.  We suggest in the morning, after school and before bed.  Doing these rinses can help "boost" your treatment time forward, and you may also want to place a "Post-It" note on the bathroom mirror as a reminder to do the rinses.