Metal Mouth Message Board

Does anyone know where I can order clear archwires? I tried google-ing it but haven't been able to find anything. I'm trying to decide between invisalign and the clear ceramic braces and I know one orthodontist who offers the ceramic braces with clear archwires and a well known orthodontist who only offers the clear braces with the metal wires. I'm just wondering if the metal wires work the best since the well known orthodontist doesn't offer the clear archwires. Are clear archwires rare for orthodontists to use? If anyone could advise, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you!

Are you talking about white arch wires? I have never heard of clear ones. If you are talking about the white wires, keep in mind that your orthodontist will probably NOT be able to use them the entire time during your treatment.

I started off using the "tooth colored" or "off-white" archwires and now they are starting to fade on my top archwire in the middle. It's not that bad but to me it's annoying. Hopefully they'll change the archwire out to a new one in my next adjustment next weekend.

I thought I had seen an article about this before I got my own braces, but i can't find it now. What I can find are a couple sites that mention clear wires being "in the works". They're listed below.

[url]ttp://www.braces.org/beautifulsmile/teens/[/url]
Under "Are there less noticable braces"

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/77/90369.htm

If you Google "clear orthodontic wire" you'll see a bunch of this.

Thank you very much for all of your advices. I'm not sure if it was a white tooth colored one, she showed me one for a second, and it looked clear just like a fishing line but it was most likely the tooth colored one everyone is mentioning since the American Association of Orthodontics only mentions that "a clear orthodontic wire is still in experimental stage"
I will definitely ask the well known orthodontist why she doesn't use them. but hearing from everyone that the color tends to fade is steering me away from it now, so thank you. Atleast we still have the option of ceramic braces even if it the wire is visible.

I just spoke to the orthodontist, and he advised me that their office doesn't use tooth colored archwires because not only does the teflon coating scratch off and make it harder for the teeth to move but the tooth colored wires tend to be thinner than the traditional wires and thus has less strength to move the teeth and lengthens the time you have to wear the braces. He also doesn't recommend the invisalign because he says you most likely have to wear normal braces afterwards anyways because its less effective... Since he is known as one of the top 10 dentists in my state, I guess his words should have some merit. I'm a bit older so I was worried about aesthetics but practicality should have more priority so It looks like I will opt for the ceramic braces with the traditional wires (-_-')

sweet19bluesx - I have the ceramics with the traditional archwires and I thought there was a big difference in appearance from the all metal look. I only found it to be slightly more like a "whole metal" look when I went into the 19x25 wire toward the end of treatment. With that heavy archwire it is more noticeable.

I've had the tooth colored arch wire throughout my entire treatment and I"m on the last possible wire. The wire never chipped too bad unless it was on for more than 2 months, in that case, I just asked for a new one and they gave it to me. I am very happy with my wire and I"m glad I chose this kind

so when you went from a thinner to heavy archwire and the difference become almost negligible? eek...thank you for letting me know fins. now my fiance is really going to throw a fit..haha...but unfortunately i'm starting to run out of choices though, visited 3 separate orthodontists and even though I am a candidate for invisalign (class 1, crowding of 2 teeth) they all don't really recommend invisalign because they say it's really not effective so it's just between clear ceramic braces with the trad. wire or no braces at all...

When you get a consult can you ask to see if anyone in the office is wearing the archwire and brackets you are considering? Often the staff is braced too, so you can see firshand what things look like.

I thought my wires and brackets were great - I even had white wire ties which maybe even brightened things up more. The 19x25 archwire is pretty thick though.

i still think metal archwire and ceramic/sapphire brackets are th way to go. you can barely see the metal wire most of the time... get the metal/ss linguals too and youre set! you wont have to worry about eating somethign that might pop the linguals off as they are tied on tight like a twist tie! it took my coworker a month before she noticed i had braces.. and she keeps saying " i keep forgetting you ahve braces"