Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi, I'm the one with the ortho who said that extractions
would the "worst possible outcome" for me -then 8
months later, went ahead and ordered 4 extractions. OK,
so I have accepted that reality, and am now ready to
move on, which is to say, agonize over the post-extraction
routine. In 2 weeks I will have 2 upper bicuspids
extracted (the 4th tooth from the center on each side,
adjacent to the canines). The good news is that the
assistant said they would get to work right away to
move my canines into the gaps. (Although this sounds
like an obvious plan to me, I have read elsewhere on
this site about patients whose orthos had higher
priorities than immediately closing the gaps.)

The bad news is that I still can't figure out what the
closing hardware will look like, or how it will affect me.
The assistant said they would use power chains and elastics
at first, and then transition to a closing loop archwire.
I asked her is she could show me any pictures of what
these look like, but apparently the office cannot produce
any. I asked her if she could recommend any websites
with pix of examples, and she could not. She was nice
enough, but seems to be advocating a wait-and-see
mentality.

So, it's up to the metal mouth community to inform
me, if you can. I have ceramic brackets. The assistant
used the term elastics to describe both the
powerchains, and the removable elastics that will
extend from the molars to the canines. If anyone
here has a similar setup and can show a
picture, I would appreciate it. I am a bit anxious
about how visible all this extra hardware will be.
I have to attend a conference 2 weeks after the
powerchains/elastics are put on, and then 2 weeks
after THAT I am attending a major family celebration.
Thanks everyone for all the support I have gotten
on this board.

Now I wish that I had taken pictures of the hardware used to close my gaps. I don't think they were very visible, but I only had them on the bottom, where I have metal braces anyway. They're little loops of very thin wire, with a spring attached. I think there are pictures posted here of some, so a search will likely turn up something (look for springs).

I did not get the springs until two months after the extractions, though. I, too, started with just powerchains (but no elastics), and then progressed to the springs. I then had lingual buttons put on the back side of the teeth to assist the closing.

You will likely not have the hardware in place for the conference or family gathering, so it's probably not worth worrying about the appearance at this point. Plus, you can always ask them to delay placing the extra hardware or request lingual buttons at first.

Kathleen, thanks for your response. I am getting my
archwire and a holding arch put on one hour following
the extraction. So I naturally assumed they would put on the
powerchains, elastics, etc. at that time. But now I will
ask about that when I go this week to get casted for
my holding arch. Perhaps I will have to decide between
starting to close the gaps immediately, at the cost of
having all that hardware for my public apperances - or
delay the hardware and the closing of the gaps by
6 weeks. That might deprive me of a big head start.