Metal Mouth Message Board

One of my brackets fell off while I was eating. I contacted my orthodontist who said it was ok as long it is one bracket, and left it to the next appointment to reapply it, in 4 weeks time! Is that normal?

How far along are you in the treatment and which tooth lost a bracket?

4 weeks sounds like a long time. I had one fall off and they were OK with a week but I doubt four.

I am about 2 months in the treatment. The bracket fell off from the second premolar (I have no first premolar because it was extracted years ago on my first treatment).

I cannot believe your ortho says it is OK to leave a fallen bracket for four weeks. My ortho told me that they regard a fallen bracket as an emergency and told me to contact them immediately.

My ortho considers broken wires and brackets falling off an emergency. I can't believe your ortho said 4 weeks is ok.

I'm with everyone else. My ortho's office considers this an emergency.

Making it unanimous, 4 days is probably too long let alone 4 weeks, unless there is something particularly insignificant about this bracket.

I’m also very surprised you were told to wait 4 weeks. In the beginning of my treatment a bracket came loose during the summer when they were closed for the holidays at my dental school and when I wrote to my ortho about it he told me to come in during one of the emergency watches and get it fixed

He said as long as the wire is still in its place and the brackets are intact on the teeth surrounding it, it is no problem to leave it without a bracket. I'm afraid I made a bad choice for the second time and I don't know what to do in this situation

I probably would have to ask if it is not a problem then why in the H** did he put the bracket on in the first place. Maybe in the scheme of thing you can play catch up, and that is why it doesn't matter now, but at least he should provide a sliver of insight.

I would guess it depends on what stage you are at, what tooth and whether the bracket was having an active part in the treatment at that stage. I have a twisted molar which is attached to a bracket and archwire but have been told not to expect to see any movement until they get to the heavier wires later in the treatment. If in doubt, call your orthodontist and discuss it with him/her and hopefully they can either fix it before your next appointment or put your mind at rest.

It may very well be he hasn't done much with that tooth, depending on where you are in treatment. For instance, a tooth that is already properly lined up on your arch won't really be in a crisis while you are still in round wires, but will receive attention when you shift to rectangular ones.

I've gone a couple of weeks with a popped bracket before (was on the other side of the country); it wasn't a big deal, and didn't involve any kind of "backsliding" in my treatment plan.

You certainly need to CALL your ortho right away if you pop a bracket, but that doesn't mean it needs to be fixed right away.

malilou25 wrote:Is that normal?

Um, no. That's ridiculous.