Why do elastics break?

Message

#1 Post by **genxsis** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 9:39 am

I'm closing in on the 2 year anniversary of having braces, and I've noticed that my elastics keep breaking on me, sometimes only an hour or so after putting them in. It's usually the one on the right side of my mouth that unexpectedly snaps. Why does this happen? Since it's close to by end-of-braces time, is it a sign of progress???

#2 Post by **jennielee81** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 2:06 pm

My guess is that it's just a natural break-down of the latex in the elastics. Some of the bags I had broke all the time and others didn't.

I don't think (my opinion here) that the elastics have any idea that your close to the end of you're treatment; doubt that's why they're breaking, BUT I am happy for ya!!

Try another pack of elastics. If you don't have one, drop by your ortho and ask for another one. They're used to that request!

Keep up your good work with wearing them, they really do work!

#3 Post by **dubnobass** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 3:44 am

I'd agree with the batches of bad elastics theory.

I wore elastics constantly for about 6 months and towards the end of that period, I was given elastics by the ortho's office which were just *rubbish* - they stretched out of shape/size after 5-6 hours and didn't do their job anymore. They would snap if you ate anything with even a smidgeon of oil/grease in it. I had to replace them 4-5 times a day. They also didn't seem to have as much elastic force - I doubled up on them.

I'm back in post-surgery elastics now, and have 4 bags of elastics in my possession - 1 good, 3 bad. The bad ones stretch, snap etc.. the good ones never break and never change size. I am therefore making the 1 'good' bag last me for as long as possible - I've been wearing my current set of box elastics for over a week!

#4 Post by **genxsis** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 10:48 am

Thank you everyone! I guess the ones I'm using could indeed be a bad batch. It's also possible, probably even more so, that it could be a sharp edge on a bracket since they usually only break on the right, and the break seems to come from the top. I'll mention all of this to my ortho when I see him in about 2.5 weeks.

My debracing time is (supposedly) coming up soon, but not too soon. January 31st will be my 2 year point and that's when the ortho says we're "shooting for".