Anyone else trim their own archwire??

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Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:47 am

My friend clipped hers and her ortho got mad at her. He said he judges how much her teeth have moved by the length of the wire. I guess if you save the clipped off piece that would be okay

I'm sure glad my ortho doesn't depend on that method for determining if my teeth have moved! How crazy...to live with a pokey wire for weeks so the ortho can see if your teeth moved......I would change orthos.

I have trimmed mine before.....the thinner wires. And I have mangled the job a time or two and made it harder for them to get the wire out...but they didn't seem to mind. Everyone at the ortho office pretty much agrees that nothing is worse than a wire poking you....I won't live through a weekend with a pokey wire without at least trying to remedy the problem myself.

yasminiandevil...I always call the ortho if a bracket comes loose. Let him make the decision of whether it is important or not.

#17 Post by **gwynneth23** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:44 pm

Thanks to everyone who's posted on this topic. Just to report back...

I had my adjustment last week, and I confessed to my ortho that I'd cut the end of the wire off. She was very relaxed about it, said that it's my mouth, and my brace, and there's not a lot I could do that would cause a lot of damage! So that was nice of her. She suggested using rounded nail scissors if necessary next time (rather than pliers out of my DIY tool box, which is what I resorted to last time

I did clean them first

).

I hadn't realised about the archwire maybe travelling round... I had a closer look, and I can see now that the wire has a little marker in the middle, to show where the mid-point is I guess. It's just a little bit darker than the rest of the wire. I hadn't noticed that before!

I'm on a thicker wire this time - she said it's rectangular instead of round like my wire was before. Not sure I could cut through it anyway, so I may just have to invest in more wax if necessary in future

#18 Post by **AngelOfLife** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 3:24 pm

Glad to hear your ortho was fine with it.

I have never done it myself, always gone to the ortho to have it done, however since I currently have the thicker wires in rather than the inital light ones, I don't think I could do it myself anyway.

#19 Post by **jennielee81** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 11:41 am

Gwynneth, you'll have a very hard time trying to cut that rectangular wire!

I did try, but it was impossible for me.

I found that I had less poking with the thicker wires as I could bend the end back towards my tooth when it got a little long. I would have to rebend it a few times a week, but that (plus wax) was enough to get me through.

#20 Post by **Miss Smiley** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:34 pm

OOOH cutting rectangular wires is not fun. I tried to use heavy duty, professional nail clippers and all I did was dent was nail clippers. I had to have my other half grab the tool box and get out wire clippers. It was scary and thought a bracket was going to break off. FYI the reason I had to cut the wire was because my molar tube fell off and the wire was just dangling and cutting up my mouth. It was a Friday night and I wouldn't be able to get back into the ortho until Monday. I just couldn't bear not talking, eating, or not moving my mouth the whole weekend. 18x25 wires are not the easiest things to cut. My other half was asking me what the wires were made of because he said they were some tough things to clip through. My ortho's office was also impressed that I was actually able to have someone cut through it with a pair of work pliers in my mouth.

#21 Post by **WiredforSound** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:42 pm

Congratulations on having the wire move so much already!!

Personally, I wouldn't clip my wires but that is because of my fear of swallowing the little piece that comes off.

#22 Post by **Miss Smiley** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:58 am

I don't think such a small piece can really hurt you. When I'm at the ortho's, I don't htink they can always find where the little bit flew. I think sometimes I just swallow it.

#23 Post by **breal87** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:45 pm

I always make sure to just tell the assistant who is putting the wires in to make sure 100% that there are no wires poking because it has happend before where i will say ok everything feels fine and a day later i start to feel it rip up my mouth, so just make sure to tell them to cut the wires! I would not recommend cutting wires yourself with a toenail clipper, i know people do it but i don't recommenD!