Grrr - Silver Coil on Clear Braces

[SmileLikeUMeanIt]

I'm pretty frustrated. The OA put a silver coil on my clear uppers with a white archwire. The point of me having clear uppers was so they weren't as noticeable.

[jem]

The joys of braces! A lot of research goes into inventing "aesthetic" braces, but once the ortho needs to do something to achieve a particular result-eg your coil spring to find a bit more space for your lateral incisor- aesthetics go out of the window.

There is another member of this forum who has all white brackets but whose ortho has put metal wire ties on each of them.No doubt the ortho believes that this will produce the best/quickest results for the patient and is therefore best for the patient irrespective of appearance.

You just have to accept that your ortho is doing what has to be done to get your desired result. I doubt whether you will have that coil spring for long. And as time goes by, we tend to become a bit less self-conscious about the appearance of our braces anyway. My first 3 wires were white but after that they have been silver and I am no longer bothered providing I am seeing movement.

By the way,your teeth are already looking great.

Jem

[Tobilei]

I understand. I paid for clear braces too and currently have 2 silver hooks attached to my upper arch wire and a silver powerchain across the bottom. I'm okay with it though, some things are neccessary and not everything comes in a neutral colour. Hopefully it will only be there until your next checkup.

I think the wire ties the person above mentioned are done because they don't stain at all and are also stronger than the plasticy o-rings. I've had just a single one around one or two brackets at various times so they have a purpose (but I don't know what that is ). They're not very noticable though.

[Ciara]

Braces! These things happen but once you've had them on for a while, you won't be so self-conscious about them. When the ortho has to do something, there may be a limited number of ways to get this done, then aesthetics go out the window. I asked my ortho about the tooth-coloured archiwires and she told me that she only has them for the lightest wires and once I needed a "square" wire, it would be metal.

[anarchy45]

All I can think is, wow, those clear brackets are *enormous*!!

[belistic10]

oh bugger! i have two very long coils as well on the top each side. i have ceramic on upper 6 but metal everywhere else. Now i am never surprised when they add something new and annoying to my mouth LOL your teeth are looking great though

[Pearlywhite14]

Ive had this too, and now the gap its trying to open has got even bigger it just looks awful! the rest of my mouth is lovely and clear with nice pearly brackets and elastics, albeit with a metal wire now, but then over one lateral incisor 'gap' i have a huge horrible dark gaping hole with a nice metal wire coil over it- feel sooooo self conscious of just that one space at the moment!

[2XRound]

I feel your frustration. I had two shiny steel archwires put on yesterday in place of my white archwires and now my braces are quite noticeable. I loved my look with clear brackets and a white archwire and I am not happy with my new one. I am also very self conscious and this new grille makes me want to hid my braces. Silly and vain I know, but that's me. Oh well it will be over in 18 months or so for me. I guess we will have to get used to it.

[crooked rory]

I forgot I even had a spring when I had it in. The worst thing with it was getting stringy food stuck.

[furious george]

It's funny, I was very conscious of those things when I first got my braces.

Now I don't care, I just want my teeth to MOVE so I can get them off sometime. The only bonus of the ceramic to me anymore is they are subtle in pictures. Otherwise, I wouldn't care if they replaced my upper ceramics with metal at this point.

FWIW, most other people won't notice or care either. I didn't think it was true, but I have an acquaintance who recently got braces off and I didn't even realize he had them on!!! Come on, you'd think I'd be especially tuned into these things!!!

[Tobilei]

It's funny, I was very conscious of those things when I first got my braces.

Now I don't care, I just want my teeth to MOVE so I can get them off sometime. The only bonus of the ceramic to me anymore is they are subtle in pictures. Otherwise, I wouldn't care if they replaced my upper ceramics with metal at this point.

FWIW, most other people won't notice or care either. I didn't think it was true, but I have an acquaintance who recently got braces off and I didn't even realize he had them on!!! Come on, you'd think I'd be especially tuned into these things!!!

This is how I feel these days. Do whatever you have to in order to get them off as quickly as possible!

[crooked rory]

I forgot to mention that I had mine were on the same teeth as yours, except mine were on the left side. He had to move the whole left side to fill a gap created by removing my right canine. It too risky pull the biscupid since it wold have likely still cost the canine. It had no support. My arch is pretty nice now, but it took a bit of work.

[SmileLikeUMeanIt]

I'm so glad im not alone in this. It's been two weeks since I've had my coil put on and I'm used to it now. I can see that my canine is being pulled back so thats encouraging. The only downside is I'm back to smiling without showing my teeth for pictures.

[emoticon1234]

Yeah I have one of those too. Had it for the duration of my treatment no less. It was pretty awful when I first got it in because the spring would rub against the inside of my mouth and I had to put wax on it all the time. It was awful. Now I don't even notice it and it doesn't bother me that it's there.

I guess I don't understand why people are so upset at the way braces look. If the two years of them on wasn't worth the final result, you wouldn't have them. It kind of comes with the territory I guess.