Running out of elastics- what to do?

Message

#1 Post by **Xero** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:48 pm

Hi there! I had a question I wanted to ask you guys. My ortho gave me elastics to wear, but I only have enough for 3 more days of use. My ortho is closed until Monday and my appointment is on Wednesday. I plan to skip today and tommorow. I'll use my last 6 elastics on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

I also have smaller elastics. My ortho gave me 5/16" 7.9mm elastics to wear, but I have smaller, 3/16" from some time ago. Should I wear the 3/16" for two days then switch back to 5/16"?

So those are my two choices: Use 3/16" for two days so I have enough, or skip two days and wear for three days so I have enough.

I also called Smileline about this. Tip: If any of you are planning to call them, they will ask for age, location, and how you found out about them.

The dentist on the line told me to wear til I run out, but I wanted to wear them on the last days.

#2 Post by **victory1** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:54 pm

If you can't stop by your ortho office to pick some more up ; call them and have them mail you some ASAP. That happened to me once and I called on Tuesday afternoon and recieved them the next day regular mail.

#3 Post by **Xero** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:57 pm

Thanks for the reply.

My ortho is about half an hour away, so I don't think I'll go there just to pick up 4 elastics.

Mailing sounds okay, but then even if I get them the next day, I'll only need 2 elastics.

I guess I'll just skip two days and wear them on the last days.

#4 Post by **lesdents** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 8:52 pm

Are you saying that you only get 4 elastics at a time? Don't they come in a bag with, like, 100 of them?

Anyway, I'm sure they'd be willing to mail them to you - after all, having the force be constant is, from what I've been told, the most important thing for effectiveness, so skipping 2 days wouldn't be ideal.

Good luck - and next time, maybe you should ask for extras? I was paranoid about running out, so I'd get an extra bag of them.

#5 Post by **Xero** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 9:28 pm

No, I'm not saying I only get 4 elastics at a time.

I get them in a pack of about 30? I meant that I would only need 4 elastics out of the bag since I won't be using them again.

I'm a little worried about teeth moving during the 2 days, but I don't think there will be too much. Next time, I will ask for more.

#6 Post by **Marzipan** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:51 pm

Maybe this is stupid, but can't you just re-use the ones you have while you waiting for more? Take them out, brush your teeth or eat, then put the same ones back in? That's better than having NO elastics for a few days.

Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:01 pm

I was in the same situation. The dental hospital said that they would send me my next appointment because they didn't know how many weeks it would be. A few days later it came and It said it would be in 2 months time! I was going to run out of elastics! Luckily my mum has to have some root canal treatment done in the same dental hospital on the 31st of August so I'm going to go with her to pick up some more elastics from the orthodontic department.

#8 Post by **josephine** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:21 pm

I've been known to reuse elastics, but just once each. In one case one of my cats found the backup bag of elastics and decided to chew on it for awhile! Yuuuck! I didn't have many clean ones left elsewhere and rinsed them to reuse one more time each, to get me to the next business day when I could get by the ortho's.