Metal Mouth Message Board

I understand that the wires always want to straighten, so if the teeth are crooked, they straighten b/c the forces on the wires will pull the teeth straight. But... what if the ortho puts kinks in them.. what do these kinks do and how do they work, force-wise? I have a couple of kinks in my wires...

One looks like a little v, in between my bottom middle two teeth, and it looks like this
---v---

Another one is called a step-up, to the left of two teeth on one side of my upper midline, and these two teeth are a little longer than the two teeth on the other side of the midline, and it is looks like this

normal length teeth____/----two longer teeth | two normal length teeth-----

What I'm wondering for the second picture in particular, how does the step-up work in this case? I would think the step up would bring the two longer teeth down even further, making it appear longer, which is obviously the opposite of what I want done. Anybody know?

i think its called the leveling phase...my Ortho uses these thresholds as she calls them, to intrude some teeth or extrude others...because some are longer then others... it really works
i have a few of these...

The wire is supposed to straighten in the early stages using NiTi wires.

The "kinks" in the wires are supposed to fine tune the positions of the teeth. The way to think about the type of movement is that the wire has been bent, and the wire has to be displaced to now be put into the bracket slot. The wire will now have a tendency to try to return to its non-displaced position.

As mentioned above, this can be used for root movement (like in the V), or extrusions/intrusions/rotations etc.

An alternative would be to reposition the bracket.

Thanks Dr Jason. I was just wondering this myself when my ortho made an unprecedented 6 kinks in my lower wire last time. I was baffled at what it did, but I'm VERY thankful if that avoids repositioning a bracket

DrJasonKTam wrote:The wire is supposed to straighten in the early stages using NiTi wires.

The "kinks" in the wires are supposed to fine tune the positions of the teeth. The way to think about the type of movement is that the wire has been bent, and the wire has to be displaced to now be put into the bracket slot. The wire will now have a tendency to try to return to its non-displaced position.

As mentioned above, this can be used for root movement (like in the V), or extrusions/intrusions/rotations etc.

An alternative would be to reposition the bracket.

Thanks. Can you tell me what the step up will do for my front four teeth though? I understand the rationale that the wire wants to return to the non-displaced position. If it does though, then the two longer front teeth will be pulled down and made longer, if I am understanding correctly. If you check the diagram in my original post, you'll see what I mean... it looks like this ___/---two longer teeth, midline, two shorter teeth----- The stepup, to the left of the two longer teeth, isn't that going to pull my two longer teeth down? This is what I'm not getting, to me it seems to make more sense to have a step down like this:
---\___two longer teeth, midline, two shorter teeth. Am I not understanding this correctly? Does the stepup make sense in my case?

I have "kinky" wires, too...



Uh... I mean I have kinks in my wires. Three of them, to be exact. They're in my lower wire, around my laterals and canines, and I believe they're there to rotate those teeth a bit. They're just a little bit "off" from the straight central teeth. Don't ask me to draw the kinks because they're really weird, and I don't think my keyboard has the right symbols... Rest assured, the kinks DO work; they just might take a little while.

-Cathy

VA5 wrote:If you check the diagram in my original post, you'll see what I mean... it looks like this ___/---two longer teeth, midline, two shorter teeth----- The stepup, to the left of the two longer teeth, isn't that going to pull my two longer teeth down? This is what I'm not getting, to me it seems to make more sense to have a step down like this:
---\___two longer teeth, midline, two shorter teeth. Am I not understanding this correctly? Does the stepup make sense in my case?

If your teeth are too long, they need to be "stepped up". The wire would be bent so that it is more gingival on those teeth, so that it has to be pulled incisally into the bracket. The wire had to be pushed incisally into the slot, and has a tendency to want to go more gingivally, so it will push the teeth, that are attached to the bracket, more gingivally (or upwards since this is the upper arch). Make sense?

DrJasonKTam wrote:

VA5 wrote:If you check the diagram in my original post, you'll see what I mean... it looks like this ___/---two longer teeth, midline, two shorter teeth----- The stepup, to the left of the two longer teeth, isn't that going to pull my two longer teeth down? This is what I'm not getting, to me it seems to make more sense to have a step down like this:
---\___two longer teeth, midline, two shorter teeth. Am I not understanding this correctly? Does the stepup make sense in my case?

If your teeth are too long, they need to be "stepped up". The wire would be bent so that it is more gingival on those teeth, so that it has to be pulled incisally into the bracket. The wire had to be pushed incisally into the slot, and has a tendency to want to go more gingivally, so it will push the teeth, that are attached to the bracket, more gingivally (or upwards since this is the upper arch). Make sense?

I think that makes sense... when you say gingival, you mean the wire needs to be bent towards the gums? I don't understand the incisally part... she made the kink in the wire with a wire bending plier, and I think she did it when the wire was already in the bracket, if that is possible. I don't remember her taking my wire out and then bending them, in other words. Does it matter? So, the tooth that is longer, will have the kink next to it, with the higher part of the bend right next to the long tooth?

I've had braces for 4 weeks. My front top teeth are very crooked, and my top braces had a huge kink in them, it looked really crazy & I thought was the worst thing about my braces.
Anyway, it's already almost straightened out and my teeth look so much better already, I'm amazed!