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I just got spacers to make space for the bands. Those of you who didnt use spacers didnt use bands either? what did you have instead?
does any one have pictures of what braces with and without bands look like?
Thanks for any help
Last edited by Bellita on Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
i dont have any photos yet of braces with molar bands, but if you use either "our braces story" thread or read the braces for newbies articles that Lynn has posted, then there are some photos of users with bands and tubes.
Some orthos prefer to use bands and some just use direct bonded tubes, and some use a combination of both.
This is a pic of my back teeth. I have a band on the first molar and a bonded tube on the 2nd which you can just about see in this pic. Hope this helps.
Hey. Yeah, I don't have bands or tube holding brackets or ANYTHING at all. Weird huh? I had bands on my molars the first time I had braces, but this time around - nothing as far as that goes.
Here is a pic (click on it to make it bigger):
Upper ceramic and lower metal braces
Round #2 - Had braces as a teen for 4 years!
Treatment time: 14 months
Braces on: July 19th, 2006
Bottom braces off: August 29th, 2007
Top braces off: September 19th, 2007
BLWR on bottom and Essix on top!
No spacers for me either thankfully, I have those tubes. Most people seem to have bands on the back teeth and need the spacers inserted to make room for the bands.
2 Extractions 2nd November 2006
Brace On 10th November 2006
Top brace off 26 June 2008 (19 1/2 months)
I think my ortho fitted 4 bands on me in about 10 minutes tops. He took the spacers out and then tried a couple of different bands on to get the right size, once he had the size right he put cement on them and pushed them onto the teeth. I had to bite down on a stick thing in order to seat them properly. There's a bit of pushing and tugging involved, but it didn't hurt. It was just a relief to get those spacers out!
I had six spacers up before I got my upper braces. Well, the did not put molar bands at all. Just molar tubes
All that suffering with spacers and then no molar bands. I got also one molar tube on my lower second molar. My lower first molars have molar bands. So I have mixture of bands and tubes. I was afraid of those molar bands, because when they put my lowers it was quite scary... But luckily I got tubes
I had buccal tubes bonded to my molars at the onset of my treatment, so that meant no spacers. However, at the 3 year mark, my ortho wanted to do some IPR on my lowers and placed 6 spacers to create some space. These were in place for a month and were uncomfortable to say the least.
So, even though your treatment may not include molar bands, spacers may still be used for other purposes. Orthos have a funny sense of humor sometimes!!
I had six spacers in for a week before i got braced...hurt like a mug!!!
but when i went in to get braced my teeth were still too tight so i kept my bottom spacers in and got the silver molar bands on the top. I went back and had my lower spacers out the next week and the molar bands put on them as well. My lowers were still too tight but he forced the bands on and that hurt a little but not too bad. It was just a reliefe to get those spacers out!!!
No spacers here as my Ortho hates bands, so there was no need for them. I have brackets on my molars and they have the elastic hooks on them and not a hook to hold a headgear.
I thought I was going to get one band as I had a bracket that fell off three times, but she just roughened the surface of the tooth and placed the bracket lower down the tooth.
http://bracesafter40.blogspot.com
Bridge Sectioned: Feb. 14, 2007
Last Pre-braces cleaning: Feb. 20, 2007
#21 Extraction: Feb. 20, 2007
Sentenced: 32 months
Top Braced: Feb 28, 2007
Bottom Braced: Apr. 4, 2007
New Ortho on Apr. 25, 2008
May 6; fluorescent blue ligs incl. upper powerchains. 2 elastics; Sept. 2, 2008.
Next Adj.: July 7, 2009 at 8:30a
I definitely had those spacers!! They gave me the worst pain..I only had them on for about a week. Honestly, I think that the spacers were the worst part of this treatment for me.