Adjustments every 2 weeks

[Crafter]

I am about 6 weeks into my treatment with 3M Clarity on my upper and lowers.
I have some crowding and overjet. I needed a fast treatment because I am moving out of this city in about a year and I don't want to deal with an unfinished work with a different ortho.

I went to 2 orthos to get my evaluation done.

My ortho said that she would use regular ceramics because the difference with self-ligating with one monthly visit was not significant enough to justifiy the expense.

So here I am, with regular ceramics with o rings and adjustments every 2 weeks.

I don't get all that "after adjustment pain" everybody talks about and I tend to eat normally every day. Can't bite, just chew. No major disconfort other than feeling that I have a truck inside my mouth and the "slightly loose, bit of pain, nothing too bad" feeling.

However, I feel almost the same during the 2 week period between adjustments (ok, it's been just one adjustment). Disconfort, inability to bite pizza or sandwiches not because it is too painful, but because it is too weird... as if my teeth are always somewhat loose.

I don't feel like anything is going wrong (not that I know what should I feel if something is going wrong anyway) but I just want to know if anybody else here has adjustment as frequent as I do using regular braces and if that works fine.

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

Hey My ortho said there comes a time in treatment where she needs to see patients sooo close in intervals, at first for spacers if the patient needs an appliance and then at any crucial time in treatment. So it should definatly be normal to go that often yes. Best of luck in your treatment. I go ever 7 weeks because my teeth are really doing much my teeth suck

[Snowglobe32]

Are you getting new wires every 2 weeks or are they just changing your ligatures? If you aren't getting new wires, that could explain the lack of "pain" usually felt after an adjustment. And if you aren't getting new wires, how do they expect your treatment to go by faster?

I don't know why there would be a difference between SL brackets and non sl brackets. The brackets are not moving your teeth, the wires are. So I am a bit confused as to why your ortho said what she said. And I am not sure that getting wire changes every two weeks (if that is the case) is good for your teeth. Then again, I am a patient, not an ortho.

Good luck!

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

Self Ligating ones are not held in with hundreds of times more pressure via the ligatures. The wires slide freely through the brackets. The regular braces are made of stianless steel. The Self ligating are Memory Wire Nickel Titanium which means they go back to their original shape. Whereas the stainless steel ones dont.

[DrJasonKTam]

Self Ligating ones are not held in with hundreds of times more pressure via the ligatures. The wires slide freely through the brackets. The regular braces are made of stianless steel. The Self ligating are Memory Wire Nickel Titanium which means they go back to their original shape. Whereas the stainless steel ones dont.

There is no difference in treatment time, expansion, or pain between self-ligating brackets and regular brackets.

Regular braces and SL brackets are made of the same materials. The NiTi you are referring to is in the wires, and they are used with both types of brackets early in treatment, and stainless steel used with both later in treatment.

Here is a summary from the Council on Scientific Affairs from the orthodontic association that was published in our journal last year:

http://markhamortho.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... ntist.html

[EbonyQ]

What? it SL brackets more painful than traditional braces?

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

Hey Eb, nope, they're less painful actually, but i tend to notice random pains in my teeth even when Im not having an adjustment but its hardly bad at all.

[ashesgap]

They are not less painful...they are alllllllll the same. Dr. Tam has linked you to the same article twice, but you just ignore it. All brackets are the same.
I've noticed everyone has different pain tolerance which determines how much they notice. Some can eat directly after an adjustment...others won't eat anything harder than applesauce for a couple days.

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

I've read the article please don't be mean to me I was just sharing my innnocent opinion Sorry. I was saying how it was for me, not speaking for all the cimoanies that make them. I READ the article and it was a good article.

[Crafter]

Before I started my treatment, I went to a different ortho and the only option he gave me was SL brackets and a 12 month treatment and he clearly said "after 12 months you will be ALMOST DONE". (I needed a speedy treatment, since I am moving in about a year). When I asked for invisalign he frowned and sent his secretary to talk to me. She said the treatment was 27 months long!!!!!!!!! (and like double the price).... there was something fishy in that quote.

The cost of those SL he wanted was going to be about 60-70% more expensive than regular braces but he assured me that this was the fastest way to go because of the nature of the SL brackets. He said that with regular braces I would be 24 months in treatment.

Then I found out that he is the exclusive distributor of that particular brand of SL brackets he wanted me to wear.

Then I decided to get a second opinion.

My current ortho explained that SL braces are not really that fast and that I could get a quick result with regular braces. She offered either invisalign for 7 months (what a difference to the other estimate! in time and price, by the way) or Clarity (non SL ceramic braces) for 10 months with visits every 2 weeks.

6 weeks into treatment and, she has changed my wire once and my ligatures 3 times. I believe that nobody gets their wire changed every visit, so I am not expecting to get mine changed as often, but getting new ligatures must do something about the pressure and functionality of the braces (then again, I am just a patient).

I believe that what ashesgap pointed out about different pain thresholds for each patient should be the key to my "not that painful" treatment. I eat right after my appointments, I have to be more careful the fist days, but is not that bad.

Also, yesterday I was looking at my teeth ( which I promised not doing that often) and the progress is amazing!!! The crowding problem is about 60% gone!!!

I am wondering if somebody else here is having their appointment this often and if I so, is there any "bad side" of this approach. So far, I feel the same througout the entire "intervisit" period (slight pain, a lot of discomfort, not being able to bite but chewing function not altered -much). Overall, not as bad as everyone told me it was going to be, but constant discomfort is there, the feeling of having the teeth "loose" (but they are not really loose, as far as I can tell, is just the feeling).

Oh, on a last comment: I am at the "fixing the crowding issue" stage. So basically, rotations and teeth out of line are getting addressed. All my teeth are being aligned to meet the outmost tooth (with the obvious open bite "getting worse" problem discussed in the forum so many times) and after all my teeth are in line, I will start to address the open bite and overjet. Is the overjet treatment more slow and painful than the rotations and crowding issue??

(what a long post, sorry).

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

I think it all depends on the ortho and how they manuver treatment and the braces. A good ortho can make threatment faster than a bad ortho. It all depends on how they control it, what applianes they use, how they lpae the rubber bands/elastics. If you want you an go to a third opinion or even a fifth.

[ProudMama1015]

I got my braces on May 18th, 2017 and my first appointment they put the top braces on, 5 weeks later I went back and got the bottom braces on. 5 weeks later I got an expander spring on my top wire to open the space for my canine to have space to come in. Again 5 weeks later, they changed the wires and now they are changing them each appointment. I had an appointment on July 19th and they did an adjustment, changing wires and bands. Then on August 2nd, they did another adjustment. Changing wires, keeping the expander, but this time adding a power chain on my upper and lower teeth but only on the first 6 teeth. Its weird. I have another adjustment appointment on the 23rd. The progress is crazy.