Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi people. I'm relatively new to braces - got braced in January this year - and this website gave me the confidence to do it!

Anyway, I just came back from an adjustment and found this weird arrangement in my mouth. It's in three corners and it really hurts! My ortho is pretty quiet whilst she works and doesn't really tell me what she's doing so I have no idea what it is. Can anyone tell me?!

[/img]

Thanks in advance! Btw that kink went overnight and I woke up with a different bite. Weird, but I know they're doing something pretty quickly.

Thanks Ken, good to know. I know it sounds daft but I never realised there was quite so much to braces before.

I have a similar configurationi on both sides of my bottom teeth up to the front two. For me, they are trying to pull both sides backwards a bit to ease the crowding on the front two teeth. (One is pushed slightly out; the other slightly back.) He said by tying all of the teeth together like that, it would apply the needed pressure to move them back. I also have clear brackets like you. The wings of the brackets do not hold the arch wire and other criss-crossed wire AND a ligature tie very well. Two of my brackets also have the wire ties like you do (in place of a ligature). I can't wait to get that contraption out of there and go back to just the arch wire and the ligatures. My wire ties are metal and are poking into my lip. Also, with the addtional wire and wire ties, the "clear braces" aren't looking very clear at the moment.

Haha I know what you mean about clear braces not being so clear! I'm just glad they're at the sides of my mouth (up to front 4 teeth). These things are a pain to clean and I swear they hurt more as well. Makes me long for plain archwire and ligs too. The thing about moving teeth back together makes a lot of sense though - thanks for that. I really should ask my ortho to talk more, because at the moment I just sit there and wonder what's happening then go home to inspect what's in my mouth. I read a tip somewhere that says you can use a pencil eraser to nudge poking wires back in, if that helps... Anyway, it's good to find a lace tie buddy! And having said all this about pain and bother etc. I still love my braces to bits.