Metal Mouth Message Board

I just had a bracket break loose from a crown on my molar. My next appointment is not for two more weeks. Do I need to get it fixed right away or can this wait? It is on my bottom braces which are only three weeks on. I was in a rush to get fully braced since I had tops for three months already, but be careful what you wish for. They hurt ten times more than the top braces. I just have been able to eat a pb&j without pain and now I have broken a bracket loose.

You might want to call your ortho, but it's likely they'll just tell you to wait. At my ortho appointment in April, they accidentally popped one off and they were like, "Meh, we'll just wait until next time you're in to fix that." It's usually not a big deal to pop one off.

Thanks Jaime. I already called but got the answer phone. I hope it can wait. Best of luck with your upcoming surgery. Sull

I had a bracket come loose about a month ago (my first one ever) and didn't even know it until I went for my adjustment. It was still being held in place by the power chains. By the time I had it repaired the molar had shifted away from my other teeth and it was very difficult to get the wire back in once the bracket was reattached. It came off again 2 days later so they had to band the whole tooth. I have a large filling on the side of that tooth and had been told the bracket may have difficulty adhering to it but never had a problem until recently. I have heard that crowns can have the same problem.

It all depends on which bracket it is, and what stage of your treatment you are in. It can range anywhere to "come in today" to "meh; a couple weeks will be fine." If one tooth is anchoring a whole lot of changes, you could lose months of progress in a couple weeks. If the tooth just happens to be sitting there, then it can wait.

This happened to me about a week after getting my braces on. I have a crown on my molar on the left side and one day, I was chatting with someone and heard a weird snap. I thought it was my tooth! Turns out, it was my bracket. I called the ortho's office and they said it was fine to leave as is unless the wire started poking me. I left it for about 4 days and finally decided to get the wire snipped because it kept jabbing into my cheek. They were awesome with accommodating me. I went in the day I called, they trimmed the wire and ended up putting spacers on either side of my crown to fit a band in later.

Just to update. My ortho wanted to see me right away because she was going to be on vacation for two weeks. They decided to bypass the crown and put a larger wire on the bottom. That hurt for two weeks since I just got the bottom brackets on 17 days earlier. While there I also got molar bands placed on my back top molars and went back to the original training wheels wire on top. Now every tooth is braced.