Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi All,

I'd like to share a funny, but not so funny at the time story. Yesterday was my first adjustment. It went horrible. A bracket popped off and had to be replaced, a spacer was inserted, and I have to go back next week for a molar banding. During all this "excitment" I didn't notice that the assistant forgot to trim the wire on my upper arch. All day long I had this wire poking me in the cheek. I work an hour away from the ortho, so I wasn't able to drive back to get it cut. It was so annoying. I kept putting wax on it, but it would just come off. By the end of the day, the scissors in my desk draw were looking pretty good.

When I got home from work, my husband said he'd help me clip the wire. My ortho said I could clip the wire myself with nail clippers. My husband boiled some nail clippers while I was starting scream about hating my braces. After several attempts, the nail clippers couldn't do the trick. This little annoyance was really starting to get to me. Then, I remembered my mom took a decorating class and had to buy some wire clippers to clip the green decorating wire. I asked my mom if she still had them. She jumped in the car and drove right over. (Good thing she lives one street over.) We boiled the cutters and my husband was able to cut the wire for me. Instant refief!

My mom was horrified that the assistant forgot to clip the wire. She kept saying with all the money that I'm paying, the ortho should be working on me, not the assistant. How many of you have had the assistant work on you?

Anyway, the moral of the story is check out your mouth before you leave! My mom and husband are my heros!

Sorry for the long post!

I am so jealous! My wire is poking so bad! They always ask me before I leave if everything feels okay and it always does, but then the minute I get home..poke poke poke.


I wonder if I have anything around the house. I was planning to call my ortho today to get it clipped but its such a PITA.

I couldn't agree more! It is a PITA. They make you wait so long to get it clipped. My banding is next week, so I'll have them check it to see if I clipped it okay. I don't reccomend clipping the wire yourself. I could have broken something. The wire extended one inch past the last bracket. Not fun!

Good Luck!!

In my orthodontist's office the ortho does the treatment planning and checks on your progress, but the assistant does the placement of the brackets and the wire changes etc.

They always ask me if anything is poking before I leave.

Audra wrote:In my orthodontist's office the ortho does the treatment planning and checks on your progress, but the assistant does the placement of the brackets and the wire changes etc.

They always ask me if anything is poking before I leave.

This is exactly the same at my ortho office.

I can't believe it was a whole inch past the last bracket ! I don't even think I have an inch of mouth room after my last bracket, haha. But yea that's a pain that u don't live close to ur ortho. I know how that is - I started my treatment with a different ortho than I have now when I lived on the other side of the country. I decided to have one near my parents house do the work bc I already knew him and it was several thousand dollars cheaper in the area my parents live than where I lived which was 4 hours away near the US capitol. I had to drive an 8 hr round trip! But to save $4k, it was worth it. Little did I know Id be moving 2000 miles away and have to pay way more anyway But it was ok bc I just drove in for a weekend every month, visited with my parents, and had my adjustment.

Smart thinking on the wire clippers. I wonder why they said nail clippers would work, I wouldn't imagine they'd be that strong/sharp. Hope your journey is smooth sailing from here out!

Ortho plans and assistants do all the "dirty" work in my office as well. My brackets were placed by an ortho (not mine but one who was sub-ing for my ortho while she was out), but my first wire change, spacers, installing TPA appliance etc were all done by assistants. I thought that was odd and was tempted to complain that for 5K I wanted the doc and not the assistant but I haven't had any problems so far.

sorry to hear that! but at least I give you props for doing it yourself with the help of your mom and husband of course.


I am hoping I dont have these issues - and I dont think I will only because there is one Ortho and one assistant and the assistant is the receptionist as well... she helped him when he was putting the braces on, just handing him things but other than that he did all the work.
ALL I AM HOPING FOR IS to hear my ortho said "YES, we're right on track" all throughout treatment I dont want any HMMMMs from him or OHhhhss or maybe we should do this instead.. no comments whatsoever if they might not make me happy.


So ya

1" of wire is a lot to forget

Like Audra and Andromeda the assistants do most of the work at appointments. My ortho checks progress and tells them what he wants done and is off to the next patient. (He does place the brackets himself though.)

My ortho does all the work. He tells the assistant which wire to fetch, which powerchain to use, etc. The assistant pretty much gets everything ready, passes the ligatures over to the ortho etc. But my ortho does everything, he looks in my mouth, chooses the wires, puts the bends in the wires, puts the ligs on, clips the wires etc etc.

One inch is sooooooo long! How on earth could she forget to clip that!!! You must have been so uncomfortable.

magster wrote: I am hoping I dont have these issues - and I dont think I will only because there is one Ortho and one assistant and the assistant is the receptionist as well...

I'd think you stand a pretty good chance of having the Ortho do all the work in your case
My ortho is a very busy guy with 2 offices. There are 6 chairs in the local office so there are lots of assistants and other office personnel bustling about.
The assistants don't make a move without his say-so though.

Thank you all for the great responses!

My ortho also has two offices and has many assistants who double as receptionists. I'll have to tell my mom to back off the ortho When she had braces, the ortho did everything. Times have changed.

My mom told me to keep the wire cutters in case it happens again. Let's hope it doesn't.

I am definitely going to tell the assistant my story next time.

Lela wrote:1" of wire is a lot to forget

hal2me: Just wondering (and forgive me if it's a stupid question ), but does the archwire still reach to the end of the teeth on the other side? That's to say, did the wire perhaps slip sideways to create such a long protruding piece, rather than the assistant forgetting to clip it? I'm not explaining it very well, but I gather that's something that can happen sometimes.

Still, I suppose it doesn't matter too much either way as you're seeing the ortho again very soon anyhow. If the wire had slipped, that would be something you wouldn't want to leave for long.

Anyway, I think you're very brave attacking your own mouth with wire cutters (or letting your husband do it). My husband was squeamish enough simply about turning the key on my expander!

Hi sauerkraut (LOVE the name!),

Thank you for the question! I forgot to mention that my top teeth aren't too bad, so my last molars on either side don't have brackets. Therefore, the wire should stop at the second to last molar on each side. So there was plenty of room for 1" of wire in my mouth. It was not fun!

I've already had a wire slip and they still made me wait a week to see them. They explained that since it wasn't in the front, I could wait a week to see them.

You should have seen my husband's face while he was doing it. While he was getting the clippers into position, he yelled,"What the hell is that blue thing in your mouth?" I forgot to mention the spacer

You have(had) and expander? What was that like? It must have been so uncomfortable for you.

Had a similar thing happen at my last adjustment..the wire was very long going in and just wasn't trimmed enough...friendly jeweler with handy tools *might* have come in handy...

ortho does all the mechanics <placement, wire change, ligature placements> but the techie removes the old ligs and passes tools, etc.

My brackets were actually placed by an assistant.

My ortho uses a computer system called Insignia. The entire treatment is planned through the software system and precise calculations determine where on the tooth the bracket should be placed. The brackets are placed on these little "jigs" so that the jig is fitted to your tooth with the bracket being put in the exact precise spot. Therefore the ortho does not have to do the bracket placement as he's already signed off on the placement through the software. The assistants in my ortho's office also do all the wire changes, adding of elastic hooks, etc.

The only time I see my ortho is for him to take a look, see that things are going according to plan and then tell the ortho if he wants them to do anything else - i.e. give me elastics or whatever.