Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi everyone,

I had my first adjustment. It was very quick, but painful! The assistant seemed to be rough when removing the ligs and it felt like my teeth were going to break.

So, they put WIRE TIES around 4 of my brackets as opposed to the elastic ligs. To keep the wire around the bracket they twisted the wire 5-6 full turns...it was really torture if you can imagine.

I wonder if anyone else has ever had these instead of ligs?

I hope mine don't poke my cheek. If they do, I might have to push them with an eraser or whatever. The assistant snipped the wire about 1/8" and then pushed it behind the arch wire which should prevent any poking!

Luckily, I'm not sore right now. It does hurt to eat though. I hope I don't wake up with pain!

So far each of my adjustments has had a level of discomfort to it...I had a wire tie put around a front tooth, so I can empathize with you there...that part was a bit tricky...

I have wire ligs because my teeth are so out of control!
I'm hoping for some colors next Wednesday (20th) because i'm tired of having to push the wires back towards the tooth, they tear up your lips otherwise. The reason i have them is like i said, those little elastic ligs would not hold my arch wire on at the time of installation(what am i a machine now? installation ha ha)
I have a couple teeth they can't crank down on because of damaging the tooth because its mostly a filling. So they just tighten it enough to help it move along.
The best thing is they dont stain!

I have been in ceramic uppers since early October and have had nothing but wire ties so far. (Sad~ no colours for me)

I have ligs on my lower teeth, but the top row was so wonky that they needed something strong for a while. Switched to a heavier wire and STILL in wire ties.

I wonder if my Ortho just doesn't put colour ligs on ceramic? Or if the wire ties are necessary for strength? I will ask at my next adjustment.

It seems from reading that most people have been getting colour ligs, and I am just the exception to the rule.

What factors into the ortho's decision when selecting wire~vs~elastic ligatures?

Any insight would be helpful :0)

The same thing happened to me! I asked the assistant why the wire ties were used, and she said that they hold the archwire in place better. I have them on a few of my teeth that are pretty out of whack, so I guess the extra tightness may help them move faster?

It's too bad that your 1st adjustment was so painful.

I have self ligating brackets so I don't have ligs or wire ties, but I got a powerchain across the front last time. I am not looking forward to having the powerchain taken off....I don't think it is going to feel really good. I know there was quite a bit of "pressure" when they were putting it on so I think it is going to hurt getting it off for the adjustment next week.

Give it a couple of days and the pain will subside. Good luck.

Don't worry, they're much easier coming off than going on....when I had my first powerchain put on, it was on some really tender front teeth....quite uncomfortable...but two weeks later when it came off, was a piece of cake.

Oooh sorry about the pain there, Joel.

I recommend taking over the counter pain medication about 45 minutes before your appointment so that during and immediately afterward it's not as painful. I try to remember to do that every time because it really helps!

I had three wire ties put on by the assisistant on my top teeth. She said it so the archwire had better control of the teeth verses rubber ligs. I asked to have them over the remaining ones so they would match and she was all to happy to comply.I really like them as it seems to make it easier to bite into crunchier things like bagels and they don't have as much give to them like ligs.

wonderstuf wrote:The same thing happened to me! I asked the assistant why the wire ties were used, and she said that they hold the archwire in place better. I have them on a few of my teeth that are pretty out of whack, so I guess the extra tightness may help them move faster?

I had my first adjustment today, and the same thing. I have wire ligs on my canines - they're higher than my other teeth and need to be moved down, plus I have a powerchain from my right canine to the tooth behind, to help bring it down.

Creepy feeling when the archwire comes out at adjustment - it was a relief to get one back on! I had the rest of my teeth wired (just the front top were done when I had my braces on last month, though the bottoms were wired then.) Finally my weird wonky canine is wired!

Minimal pain during the wire twisting. The ortho said I should have taken some Advil before my appointment... fat lot of good to know that in the chair, LOL.

No pain at all now though.

At my last adjustment (Saturday) I "graduated" to a stronger wire on the top to go along with my stronger wire on the bottom... now I only have tie wires... I miss the ligs. This adjustment was pretty painful, and I was told that if I couldn't take the pain they could put me back in softer wires but the stronger wires would help my treatment move faster... I hope they're right. Other than the inital pain during the adjustment... the tie wires haven't been any different.

I got both tops and bottoms on the 15th of November- I am amazed at the movement that has occurred already!! Looking forward to my first adjustment to get it going a bit more- but now I realize it will be back to the pain for a few days- just like childbirth- you forget...

I'm currently on wire ties on all my brackets (and have been since the beginning of treatment) and they haven't been that much of a pain. It's just that occasionally the end of the wire pokes out after eating/brushing/flossing so I just tuck them back in with a fingernail or something. I just had my first adjustment yesterday and asked them if they'd ever use plastic ligatures on me.. and he said maybe just for like a month or two - the majority of the time, it'd be with wire ties. Oh well. And I was looking forward to choosing colors!