Metal Mouth Message Board

During my treatment, the ortho used wire ties when they wanted to keep the archwire 'extra tight' against the brackets. The regular o-rings tend to stretch between adjustments.

Here's one. There was more going on than just ligs in this picture with the sprigs and extra hooks, but you get the idea. These were silver ligs.

I had something similar done in my mouth I think. They wrapped very thin wire in a figure eight fashion going from bracket to bracket from my first molars to canine. This was done with the archwire off. After that, they put in an archwire and used regular o-rings to engage the brackets. They called ...

I have been wearing elastics with ceramic uppers and metal lowers for the last six months. On my ceramic brackets, the upper wings on the canine and first premolars are large and serve as hooks for my elastics. You should be able to hook the elastic over the top of the bracket and it will stay put. ...

I have 28 teeth, all with either a bracket, band, or molar tube. The only teeth without a hook are my upper centrals and my lower front four teeth. The rest have have a hook built into the band/bracket/tube for a total of 22 hooks. I have two different triangle elastic configurations. One for the da...

I have the same situation and was told by my ortho that since I have a 'peg lateral', that bonding is the best way to take care of the gap. A peg lateral is one that's narrower than usual

Brit27's reply reminded me of the term my ortho used to describe my laterals. He called them 'peg laterals' Just out of curiosity Brit, did the dentist have to numb you're mouth for the bonding? I forgot to ask! I'm going to get the bonding either way though.

I have the same situation. My upper arch was expanded with archwires to make room for crowding on the lowers and as a result, spaces have formed around the upper laterals. I was told the best way to deal with the spaces was with bonding, however, I was given the option to power chain them together f...

I have bands on my first molars, but when the ortho decided to band the second molars, I was able to talk him into using the bonded tubes to avoid going through a second round of spacers. This was done with the understanding that if we had problems with the tubes popping off, he'd switch to bands. I...

I had a situation recently where I needed a powerchain on my lowers and the ortho only had a choice of clear or blue. Since I thought the clear would stain, I opted for the blue powerchain. I also only had a couple weeks between apointments since he was going to reposition some brackets, so I decide...

Even if there's not enough poking out, they may be able to use a handpiece to grind the wire flush with the back of the tube. I had this done once and it was INSTANT releif.

Congrats on getting started. You are fortunate that you have the small overjet. I also had relapse on my lower front teeth and kept going from consultation to consultation trying to find an ortho that could just do the lower arch. Since I didn't have an overjet, it simply wasn't possible. I still ha...

That's a very thorough cleaning routine you have. I had similar issues about four years ago. Once I started using a Sonicare and flossing daily, my condition vastly improved. With the Sonicare, all you have to do is angle it at 45 degrees to the gumline and slowly move it around the arch with light ...

That's some impressive movement. Equally impressive is that you still have wisdom teeth and they are fully erupted and there are no fillings in any of the teeth. You're really going to have nice looking teeth when you're all done!

I had mild to moderate crowding on the lowers and minor crowding on the top. At around six months, they were perfectly aligned in my opinion. I'm in the detailing phase now with 3-4 months to go.