Metal Mouth Message Board

Okay,I am new to this board and only in my 2nd week with braces.
I was brushing my teeth with my new manual ortho toothbrush. I caught it on something. Then i felt a string in the back of my mouth.
I took a flash light and found a string hanging at the end of the arch wire. I cut off the string.

Has anyone had this happen?

Do you know what that string is?

As far as I know, there are no strings used in orthodontics. Did you floss first? Maybe a piece of floss got caught on that bracket?

No it is not dental floss.
I did speak to my ortho today and he doesn't know what I am decribing either. Very strange.

I actually have a string on one of my brackets. I have a crooked lower front tooth that has had springs on either side of it it make room for it to turn. At my last appt, they finally decided there was enough room for the crooked tooth to be turned, so they put a bracket on the crooked tooth. Instead of attaching it to the archwire, they put a clear stretchy string around the bracket and tied it on the the archwire. I was told that it would be attached like the rest of my teeth at my next appt.

Are you talking about a powertie? It looks like clear fishing line.

No it's not a powertie. I have those on the teeth that have the spring. This string is clear and stretchy. The asst. told me what it was called, but of course I have forgotten. The archwire is not engaged in the bracket. They wrapped this string around the bracket and then tied it to the archwire. They said that they would engage it on the bracket at next adjustment. I think they would have had to have bent the archwire quite a bit to get it in the bracket, so this is supposed to turn it enough where I think it will be easier to attach to the wire.

thmmom wrote:No it's not a powertie. I have those on the teeth that have the spring. This string is clear and stretchy. The asst. told me what it was called, but of course I have forgotten. The archwire is not engaged in the bracket. They wrapped this string around the bracket and then tied it to the archwire. They said that they would engage it on the bracket at next adjustment. I think they would have had to have bent the archwire quite a bit to get it in the bracket, so this is supposed to turn it enough where I think it will be easier to attach to the wire.

Zing sting (aka Elastomeric thread) perhaps?
It's s not string or thread as we commonly think of it. It's stretchy; more like a very thin rubber band.

I think your right - zing string.

This was just a plain long white string not elastic.
Very odd. It was a bit alarming at first.

I got my braces yesterday. When I got home, I saw a string coming from one of my top tooth's bracket. I plled on it a bit, it was about a half inch long, maybe less. I was afraid of messing up anything, so I left a piece of it there. I'm thinking it was from the cotton rolls they were using to clean off my gums or whatever?

Could it possibly be one of the hairs of the toothbrush? You said your toothbrush caught on something, maybe you pulled a hair out?
That was my first thought.