Metal Mouth Message Board

yesterday, i had a dental adjustment. my orthodontist was probably too frustrated with my slow progress so he discouraged me from getting pink coloured power chains. he claimed that clear power chains are stronger than the coloured ones.

is it real? in that case is there a colour power chain that is stronger than the clear chains? while they look the same to me, i would prefer a coloured one as clear chains tend to get yellow easily. i read on a forum that grey powerchains are supposingly stronger than the clear ones.
anyone here have any experiences with both colored and clear chains and can relate to that?

meanwhile, my power chain screwed up my bite so much my overjet seems worse! I couldn't even close my mouth at night and I drool a bucket of saliva on my pillow. Yes now i can't even close my mouth. My teeth can't meet now argh

I've only ever used grey power chains and the rating system wasn't ever explained to me, my ortho just put them on and said "these should close the gap, see you in 6 weeks!" so I can't really help with that question.

However, don't worry about your bite getting worse - often they have to kinda screw it up in order for everything to end up in the right place. Mine was really terrible for about 3 months, nothing fit together at all and I had no idea where to bite. It's much better now and everything fits together the way it's supposed to!

I started out with colored powerchains and my gap between my two front teeth wasn't closing as fast as my ortho had expected it would. I was told that the clear ones are a lot stronger than the color ones. So I was given a clear double power chain to close my gap faster and it worked really fast.

I don't know if there is a color that is stronger than clear. I've been in clear powerchains for a while and I would really love to go back to color but don't want to prolong my treatment further.

As far as your bite being messed up, it's normal for things to get worse before they get better. Your bite will be fixed in no time. Just be patient.

AM21 wrote:I started out with colored powerchains and my gap between my two front teeth wasn't closing as fast as my ortho had expected it would. I was told that the clear ones are a lot stronger than the color ones. So I was given a clear double power chain to close my gap faster and it worked really fast.

I don't know if there is a color that is stronger than clear. I've been in clear powerchains for a while and I would really love to go back to color but don't want to prolong my treatment further.

As far as your bite being messed up, it's normal for things to get worse before they get better. Your bite will be fixed in no time. Just be patient.

Oh man! So clear ones are indeed stronger?! ok back to clear ones I go. Must not prolong treatment time. Thanks!!!

Interesting, I wonder why the company/companies that manufacture powerchains make clear ones stronger than those of other colors? It would be more logical if they made all powerchains regardless of color the same strenght.

Interesting - I've been wearing clear powerchains on my uppers this whole time during treatment. I have Damon clears on top.
I just got the grey powerchains on my lowers for the first time this past treatment. My lowers are metal.

The dental assist. actually said the grey ones are more powerful than the clear ones, and even suggested that I may want to try the grey ones on my upper teeth. So that's what my dental assist. had told me.

FFWM wrote:Interesting, I wonder why the company/companies that manufacture powerchains make clear ones stronger than those of other colors? It would be more logical if they made all powerchains regardless of color the same strenght.

Well I guess they added some special agent or chemical to give it a colour (or maybe coloured chains are made from a different material) but I was told clear powerchains are more elastic therefore more efficient

bracesagain2 wrote:Interesting - I've been wearing clear powerchains on my uppers this whole time during treatment. I have Damon clears on top.
I just got the grey powerchains on my lowers for the first time this past treatment. My lowers are metal.

The dental assist. actually said the grey ones are more powerful than the clear ones, and even suggested that I may want to try the grey ones on my upper teeth. So that's what my dental assist. had told me.

Omg thanks for your input!
I'm gonna ask for grey powerchain on the next visit can't stand it when clear powerchain get stained yellow but I don't want my treatment to be prolonged either. Guess grey is my best option

I feel like there is a powerful force within my mouth with gray power chains! Maybe next time......lime green?

This was the new addition today to the top and bottom teeth, on each one. Not only do the gray power chains emphasize the shiny mouth 'o braces with new thick wires but if this didn't excite me enough, the jackpot was ......drumroll please......sea lions elastics! Not being able to open my mouth very wide is weird. Food, forget chewing today, it' s so overrated, right? Trying to put on the elastics the first time was a comedy within itself - spraying the mirror, sore lips and mouth but those suckers aren't going anywhere

Only 6 months into this and my mouth is looking good!

This is from anecdotal experience but we have found that the grey and clear power chains do work better and are more resilient than those with colours.

It was touched upon earlier in the thread above, but due to the colour agents that have to be added to the coloured chains, the properties of the material are changed. We've found the worst culprit to be the navy blue and red in terms of snapping.

There are also varying qualities of power chain between companies. The one that has shown to be the best in studies is the one from RMO, since it keeps its resiliency and elasticity the longest. This happens to be the only product we buy from this company, and it is quite a bit more expensive, but it is worth it because they work that much better. In our experience, anything from RMO, regardless of colour happens to be better than any power chain from other companies to date.

Well i have had coloured powerchains (including royal blue and a maroon/red colour) since June27th and i got them off on Sept 5th and they worked pretty fast to close my HUGE diastema and the other spaces between my front teeth....I will need more powerchains in the future.

To me they worked pretty fast. 2months and 8days to be exact...lol...but i guess every case is different.