wire and moving direction

[adultbraces]

I'm currently on what people are called soft wire because it's my first wire.
I had 4 premolar extractions to correct overbite/overjet. So things are suppose to move backward..My question is at this stage, are my molars strong enough to pull the teeth backward? How about the forces from the front teeth and pulling molars to the front?
How long after will the power chain introduced?

[Britlaw]

Hi there, I am just about the same stage as you, same problem with teeth, same no of extractions etc. I have just had 1st adjustment and the next wire up. My teeth have moved a lot in 5 weeks. Because I look at them all the time I dont realise how much til I look at the before picture. However, my front teeth have moved even further forward to let the laterals in. My ortho said that this was normal and that he would only start in earnest on glosing the gaps - i.e. bringing the teeth back, once they were straight. He said that the teeth in front of the extraction gaps would maybe drift back a little during this stage but told me to get used to my gaps for a while!

I also asked him whether when closing gaps, the front teeth went back or whether it was a little of the front teeth going back and a little of the molars moving forward. He said it depends on what you are trying to achieve. On my bottoms, he wants my front teeth to stay where they are so hes going to move just the molars forward to meet the top ones and so correct my back bite without giving my top ones even further to travel to correct the overbite. On the top he doesnt want the molars to go anywhere so I guess I will have a nance to keep them where they are whilst the front ones move back to reduce overbite. I guess what I am saying is that your ortho will use braces, appliances etc to move your teeth in the way they need to!

I was told by ortho that he'd start on closing my gaps after 6-8 months depending on how the straightening stage goes but that there are no hard and fast rules.

Take care

[Miss Smiley]

My uppers had o-ligs for 2 months or so befor they got powechains. Lowers had powerchains on the canines to molars from day one.

[joney]

My extraction gaps closed quite a bit in the early stages even though that wasn't being addressed, especially my top gap. I knew visibly that it was closing and also extra wired poked out the back, this was without powerchains.

[Spanner]

I had to laugh at my ortho when he said "you have a thin wire to start" i asked him why and he said "because you look delicate" haha.

Seriously though when you first get braced you expect to see changes quickly and want everything to happen as you expect. But that's not the case and this is why orthodontics is a lengthy process.

I have gaps, some of which have closed already and I've only been braced 2 weeks but I don't expect this to be permanent at the "moment" and they may well open up again to then close at a later date.

As an example I have one gap that closes during the night while sleeping only to re-open during the day while talking and eating. I'm assuming that this is OK due to my teeth being slightly loose at this point in time.

[gwynneth23]

If all you have is teeth pulling against teeth then, generally speaking, all involved teeth will move. The analogy I use is this: if you have two people, one at each end of a stretched bungee cord, then they will tend to be pulled towards each other.

Would it be true though that because the molars have much stronger roots, they will tend to act more like a fixed point, and pull the other teeth backwards? That was sort of how my orthodontist described it to me last time I saw her.

She was explaining how she's attached a powerchain to the back two molars (not sure if that's the right way to describe them - they are the next two teeth after my wisdom teeth, at the back), and then linked it to the teeth further forward, to pull them back into the extraction gaps. She said she would first of all pull back the teeth in the middle, and then attach the front teeth later.

I think that's for the reason Meryaten explains above, that it's like a tug of war and you need to make sure the molars at the back are stronger than the combined force of the teeth further forward that you're trying to pull back! So you don't try to do them all in one go... Does that make sense, not sure I'm explaining it very well!

[KK Cat]

How long after will the power chain introduced?

Also each case is treated differently (on a case by case basis). I had 2 upper premolars extracted and like you the gaps created are to be used to bring front teeth back. At the beginning ortho told me I would most likely get elastics on my 2nd adjustment, but I've had 5 adjustments now & no mention of elastics since.

The first 6 months were used mainly to straighten the front 6 upper teeth. After 5 months my lowers were braced (but they don't need much work). After 6 months ortho intended to put what he calls a spring (sometimes closing loop here) to start closing the gaps (as it happens because of his holidays & then mine it was actually well into month 7 when I got them).

I'm presuming that the elastics are on the horizon somewhere. No mention of powerchains has ever been made (yet )I don't really sweat the details because I know that he knows what he is doing (know loads of people who went to same ortho & havn't heard a bad report yet).

A colleague of mine is also going to same orthodontist. While it seemed as if we had a similar problem, his treatment has been quite different to mine. He has had powerchains on and off from shortly after the beginning of his treatment and he has never had the closing loops I have although he too had extractions.

[Chris1960]

I've been going nuts wondering about this. My ortho tells me nuthin'.

I had my lower 2nd premolars extracted. He has moved the front four incisors out past my tops. - I guess this is the straighten first, close gaps 2nd theory. It would make more sense to me to move the premolars/canines into the gaps to make room for the incisors but I what do I know?

At the 2nd adjustment I asked when we'd start closing the gaps and he said today. He put a power chain on, but my canine/premolar doesn't seem to be moving. My incisors are still moving out though.

I'm thinking of calling and asking for a stronger chain.