The 2010 holiday season is upon us, and our team at Cottingham Orthodontics would like to wish all our patients and their families the merriest of holidays and best wishes for the New Year. 
Dr. Karen Cottingham and team understand not everyone is always thrilled about visiting their orthodontist. But here at Cottingham Orthodontics, we strive to bring you the best and most comforting experience at each visit. We are not only a doctor and orthodontic team—we are also parents, patients, and people with needs and concerns just like you. We understand what you expect from us, and we are dedicated to helping you achieve a lifetime of healthy, beautiful smiles!
Great question. Fall is here, and with it the dreaded cold and flu season. After recovering from your cold, Dr. Cottingham and our staff will tell you one of the most important steps you can take to avoid becoming re-infected is replacing your toothbrush! 
Dr. Cottingham and all of us at Cottingham Orthodontics extend our best wishes to you, our patients and referring doctors, for a wonderful Thanksgiving.
For parents of Cottingham Orthodontics patients worried about their kids going overboard on candies this weekend, sugar and other sweets, Halloween is a dreaded annual event (no pun intended).
A local student was in Dr. Cottingham's office last week to shadow Dr. C and learn more about orthodontics as a profession. Emily Cloncs (left) is a Danville High School freshman. Dr. Cottingham enjoys when students come in to our office to shadow and her, and loves that they are interested in orthodontics!
With fall sports under way for a lot of our patients, Dr. Cottingham thought today would be a good time to once again remind our young athletes in braces to take care of both their mouth and appliances while participating in sports this fall. 
There are a variety of foods Dr. Karen Cottingham wants you to avoid while you're wearing braces. Some foods can occasionally damage braces, but certain foods can bend the wires or even break the brackets on your braces. If you’re wearing braces, you should avoid starch, sugar and gummy foods, as these foods can be difficult to remove during brushing. Foods that are high in sugar and starch tend to cause plaque, cavities and even tooth decay.
This week, Dr. Karen Cottingham and our team thought we'd give you a quick update about our office! Most schools started recently here in Indiana, and our staff delivered baskets of travel-sized hand sanitizers to area school teachers to promote good health and hygiene.
Great question! Our good friends at the American Association of Orthodontists have put together a helpful list that outlines when you should call Dr. Karen Cottingham. Here are some early warning signs indicating it’s time to check in with us at either our Indianapolis or Avon office this fall:
If you’ve recently completed treatment at Cottingham Orthodontics, we’d like to congratulate you again! Now that your braces have been removed, Dr. Karen Cottingham will provide—or has provided you—with retainers. After your braces come off, teeth can shift out of position if they are not stabilized. Retainers, however, provide that stabilization. They are designed to hold teeth in their corrected, ideal positions until the bones and gums adapt to the treatment changes. Wearing retainers exactly as instructed by Dr. Cottingham is the best insurance that the treatment improvements last for a lifetime. Here are a few things to remember when you receive your retainers:
Our staff at Cottingham Orthodontics want to know: Are you brushing your teeth twice a day during your orthodontic treatment? If yes, that’s what we want to hear! But, don’t forget that it’s also important for you to visit your general dentist every six months in addition to brushing your teeth and flossing (and visiting our office, of course). An oral checkup is vital for maintaining good oral health for kids with and without braces.
Summer is only halfway through, which means another seven weeks of vacations, adventures and great memories are ahead of us. Whether you’re headed to a barbecue, a camping trip, hitting the open road with family, watching the Colts practice or just having fun in the sun, Dr. Karen Cottingham and our staff want to hear all about it! We encourage you to leave a comment on our Facebook fan page and tell us about your summer adventures!
With summer 2010 in full swing, Dr. Karen Cottingham would like to remind all our athletes in treatment to be extra careful when out on the field. After all, most mouth and facial injuries occur during the summer months. 
Indianapolis orthodontist Dr. Karen Cottingham routinely invites new orthodontists from around the region into her practice to allow them the opportunity to see an established practice in action. It helps the new orthodontist understand how a practice operates and how staff members interact with patients. It also gives them the chance to ask questions and seek advice from an experienced orthodontist. Dr. Cottingham is proud to have another orthodontist—Dr. Morgan Mitchell from Prospect, Kentucky—observe her practice in action next week. 
Access to your account, any time you’d like. Sounds simple, nice and convenient, doesn’t it?
We hope you enjoyed the long holiday weekend! Now that we’re in June, Dr. Cottingham and team thought we’d tell you June is National Smile Month, and a good time to remind all our patients to practice good oral hygiene between your visits to Cottingham Orthodontics.
Dear Dr. Cottingham,
We want to express our sincere appreciation for your generosity in support of our 8th Annual “Taste of Italy” Dinner/Auction held on Saturday, March 20, 2010. Through the hard work and efforts of so many individuals and the donations we received for our fundraising event, our goal of having an evening that included food, fun, fellowship, and fund-raising was met. As such, we are proud to announce we were able to raise $10,000 for our school. The success would not have been possible without your help. Thank you.
Westside Christian School actively aspires to help each child grow in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, to have the life skills necessary to experience success, and to serve God and others with Christian character and academic excellence. The funds raised will assist with this mission.
Once again, thank you for supporting us and believing in our school. Westside Christian School is very blessed for the continued support we receive in educating the future. Your donation will make a difference in shaping young lives that will one day be our church, community, state, and possibly, our world leaders. We pledge to continue developing individuals of Christian character with Christian values.
Sincerely,
Mary Valentine
Our staff at Cottingham Orthodontics will tell you that part of what makes Invisalign clear aligners "work" is that the treatment is customizable for pretty much anyone's teeth. To find out if you are the right candidate for Invisalign treatment, the first thing Dr. Karen Cottingham does is take an impression of your teeth as they are now and digitize it. Using special software, Dr. Cottingham and our team look at the current positioning of your teeth and compare it to the way your teeth should look.
Absolutely not. In fact, our staff at Cottingham Orthodontics read a fascinating statistic: the number of adults getting braces has actually climbed 24 percent since 1996! Yes, braces help make your pearly whites strong, healthy and perfectly-aligned, but perhaps another reason for the spike in adult braces is this: people want to look and feel great. 
Dr. Karen Cottingham is actively involved in several community-service activities and charitable organizations, as well as child advocacy endeavors because she believes strongly in giving back. Dr. Cottingham supports Special Olympics of Indiana, Make-a-Wish Foundation, Riley Hospital for Children, Sheltering Wings (Hendricks County domestic abuse shelter), the donation of dental services to underprivileged children, as well as multiple community, school, band and sports programs.
Some people wonder why Indianapolis orthodontist Dr. Karen Cottingham and our team work tirelessly to give our patients straight teeth. Of course it’s nice to have a smile full of evenly aligned teeth, but did you know that straightening your teeth at Cottingham Orthodontics can keep them healthier? Straight teeth lead to better oral hygiene, increasing your chances of keeping your own natural teeth for a lifetime!
Last week, we asked you, our fantastic patients, what you liked most about Cottingham Orthodontics. Well, the reviews are in, and we'd love to share a few with you this morning. If you have any reviews you'd like to add, please do so here or on our Google Local page! Have a great week!
From your very first visit to Cottingham Orthodontics, our team strives to provide superior treatment in a pleasant, friendly atmosphere. Today, we thought we’d ask you, our wonderful patients: Have you been especially impressed by Dr. Cottingham? Did our team go out of their way to make your day? Are you in love with your new smile?
Dr. Cottingham is a native of Alabama, but has called Indiana home since 1996. She received her B.S. degree from Troy University, in Troy, Alabama in 1991 and her D.M.D. degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1995. She practiced general dentistry for one year at the Veterans' Administration hospitals in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Alabama. She then received her Master's degree in Orthodontics from the Indiana University School of Dentistry in Indianapolis in 1998 and resided as faculty until joining in 1999 what was then known as Clemons Orthodontics. She and her husband currently reside on the west side of Indianapolis.
Posts
All Comments
