Metal Mouth Message Board

Lucy, a friend of mine had her chains tied to her archwire with the elastic thread. And once mine got close enough, mine were tied on with an elastic thread. See:



The reason a lot of us had gold chains is that when they expose your teeth and stick a bracket on them and cover them back up, your gums will react less to the gold, so its okay to cover that up.



Your teeth, from what I understand, they exposed and LEFT exposed, so they don't have to be so picky with it.

If it doesn't feel like there's much tension, they may be starting you off that way. Next time, they will make it tighter, or you can tell them you're okay with making it tighter (though it will hurt!)--my ortho didn't want to hurt me sometimes, and would go easy on me, but a couple times I told him I was okay with a little more pain, I'd just take Advil.

Good luck!

Pam

No problem, Lucy.... you're fine...

Hi Lucy,
I am just like Pam only I have one canine being exposed and they have mine tied to the archwire the same way as Pam's. The elastic gets changed every adjustment and more tension is added its painful when they are tying it but afterwards its bearable and then after a day you don't even notice it as much.

Is it power thread? My right canine, which came in on its own but up really high, is attached with this long string of rubber that they wrap around the brackets...it's not connected like a regular powerchain though. I've had it for a week and it hasn't broken, but they said I had to come back in two weeks because it loses its elasticity after awhile. Actually, I think it already has lost its elasticity. :\ The tooth moved a TON the first day or two, so much and so quickly that it left like this pocket in my gums behind it. Yeah, gross lol. But it hasn't moved at all since then.

The only thing about it that worries me is when they put it on they stretch it out really far and it looks like it's going to break and pop me in the face...lol

I also have elastic thread!

After pulling on one of my impacted canines for about 11 months with elastic thread, the tooth is right there ready to come down. My ortho at my last visit clipped out all the things he had previously used to bring down the tooth and tried to thread a wire up into my gums to attach to my tooth! He was totally jabbing me and he even made me bleed! Then he asked if this was bothering me! He finally used a huge piece of elastic thread and tied to the tooth and tightened it! IT hurt so bad I had such a sleepless night! It was almost unbearable!

I am kind of worried that if I brush to hard I will break the thread and have to go back in and experiecne that all over again!!! I hope it lasts for 5 weeks!

Good luck with yours!

-Hannah

top braces: 4/28/05
bottom braces: 11/16/05

My ortho has been using this elastic thread ever since the moustrap got the tooth down far enough to attach it to something. As of yesterday, I have thread going 3 different directions--2 of them are to rotate the tooth---the other is to pull it forward. As you can probably see, one of the threads is going across my pallete which makes speech a bit difficult but I'm getting used to it. Click on the pics to see a close up of the threads and you can probably see the way he has them running. This stuff really does work even though it looks to be flimsy--when they cut it off and change it, you can tell a difference in the pressure. On a bad note, it also stains as easily as the clear ligatures . . . .

Gena

I guess it has to go on a case by case basis. Looks like there are quite a few people that end up with this elastic thread though. Mine was totally turned around the wrong way when it came down (the front of it was actually facing the back of my other canine. I have had braces for 29 months now. My initial estimated treatment time was 30 to 32 months but looks like it's gonna be a while. I had my exposure surgery done in my 10th month of treatment. So, he's been working on that tooth for quite a while now. Some months it seemed like it didn't move at all--then other months there had been noticeable change.

He told me about one patient it had that is around my age (35). Her tooth got so loose and took off so fast she was actually afraid she was gonna lose the tooth. But he says he has other cases similar to mine where things go slow as Christmas!! But, he told me Tuesday he's not concerned about it because it is moving and he feels like it will get there.

I'll be glad when it finally does come into position though. I had a dentist in the practice I go to make me feel like dirt one day--he says, "I can't beleive they're attempting to bring that tooth down, that almost never works". Boy will it feel good to prove him wrong.

Anyhow, sorry for such a long post--I get a little carried away sometimes. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year--stay in touch with your progress!

Gena

So many of these impacted cainins. Perhaps we should award the cainin the, Most Impacted Tooth of the Year Award. Wonder why it's the cainin. From what I've been reading seems 90% of the it is. Perhaps it's because it's positioned right at the point the jaw makes a sharp curve inward.

I think the canine is usually the last adult tooth that comes in and if it doesn't have a clear path, the baby tooth will never loosen and it won't come into position correct---not sure if I'm right on this but that makes sense as to why so many people have problems with the canines. Thank god my other one came in--I don't see how the double doosies handle it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i have that tied on my button to my wire to turn i tooth i just got it yesterday, over the summer i had gray one on a diffrent tooth and it worked well.