I think I might have lost a tie, but I'm not sure

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Author
cheggers
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:05 pm
Location: The Netherlands

I think I might have lost a tie, but I'm not sure

#1 Post by cheggers »

I'm 18 months or so into treatment and nearly finished with the braces. Yesterday the orthodontist's assistant did several things: replaced the two central upper brackets (ceramics); removed the upper and lower wires to clip them shorter and then put them back in, anchoring them no longer on the molars but further forward; made hooks on the wires in new positions to accommodate a new arrangement of elastics (a more central position now than for the past year, with much tighter elastics to the bite into alignment). The doctor checked what she did and removed the bands from my molars.

Anyway, when I was brushing my teeth in the evening (with a manual toothbrush, not my normal electric one), at one point I noticed a small loop of some kind of wire or thread that had apparently come loose from somewhere in the centre of my upper appliance. I pulled it and the wire/thread came right out. I'm not sure what it is. It's about an inch or so long, appears to be white or clear in colour, probably made of some kind of nylon-type plastic, and is straight but with a kink in the middle that makes it into a v-shape. It seems to have the same kind of colour, diameter and flexibility as a toothbrush bristle, but is about twice the length of the toothbrush bristles, so I'm guessing it can't be that (unless the bristles are doubled up in the toothbrush?)

I'm wondering if this is some kind of tie that has come off, but I can't tell as I don't know what to look for. Everything looks OK to my unskilled eye and the wire doesn't seem to be moving anywhere. Can you tell me what this is or might be? Should I make an appointment to get it looked at?

Thanks for any advice!
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