This is the place to post general questions and comments about all areas of orthodontic treatment. Before you post a question, use the forum's SEARCH tool to see if your question has already been answered!
New Members: YOU MUST MAKE A POST WITHIN 24 HOURS OF REGISTERING OR YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED. In other words, don't sign up unless you plan to actively participate in the message board immediately. This is necessary to keep out spammers and lurkers with bad intentions. Of course, you can read most forums on the board without registering.
DO NOT POST FULL-FACE PHOTOS or personal contact information on this website. We have had problems with people re-posting members' photos on fetish websites. Please only post photos of your teeth, not your whole face. Keep your email and your personal information private. Thank you.
I did it. I came clean to my ortho. I wasn't wearing my elastics as much as recommended because they always caused a gap between my front teeth. She was cool about it and said that the configuration wasn't doing what she wanted anyway.
So now I have a power chain across the top four and 2 seperate ones on my molars.
Now the fun part...new elastic configuration. It's the box...but that's not the bad part. The bands are suppose to go from the last 3 molars on the bottom to the last 2 molars on the top. How do you get your fingures back there? Maybe I need to invest in a set of plyers they have at the ortho office. Do you think fishing plyers would work?? Gross.
I've had the box configuration, albeit not as far back as yours. I found it easier to get the elastics on using a plastic tool I got at the ortho office; this is about 3" long and has a hook at one end. Meryaten posted a pic of another tool some time back - I think it's called a hemostat.
I use the little tool the ortho gave me with my 2 bags of Elastics. I can litteraly sit in a room and replace the elastics with the lights out and my eyes shut. Thats how good I became!
SDFD TSchott
PS: I think I finally learned how to shoot the elastics out the right way to hit people in front not knock it clear down your throat! J/K
Adjustment Sept 14th, 2018
Braces back on August 06, 2018
Braces off April 02, 2008
Second day with this box configuration and it's not working out for me. I have small hands and yet I still can't get the band to hook. It took me 10 min last night and this morning I had to go to a different ortho to get it hooked (this ortho is in the same office building).
One side is easy and the other...well... is a pain in the butt.
I wonder if the hook just needs to be pulled out...huh...
All I know right now is that I don't ever want to take these out...cause that would mean I have to try to get them back in.
It's a blah day.
KK I took our advice and went in to see the ortho again. It turns out that the hook on the bracket on the back molar had broken off. They ended up replacing the bracket and bending the hook out even farther. Thank goodness for wax and salt water rinses.
Now to wait for 5 weeks to see what fun we can have.
