Metal Mouth Message Board

What are they supposed to do? How do they work? I had my fourth adjustment yesterday morning, and my ortho put these spring things on the arch wire in between some of my bottoom front teeth that are being stubborn. These teeth are the main crowding issue in my case, and I haven't seen much improvement at all I'm starting to worry that they won't move at all. To me there just dosen't seem enough room for them to move and straighten out. I'm sure my ortho knows what he's doing, but I just can't see where these three crowded teeth are going to fit! Someone please tell me that they had the same issue and now they're teeth are nice and straight! I need inspiration, because I'm starting to loose hope!

I have been braced since December 16. I have a spring on my top right. It is supposed to turn the tooth to fit into my archwire from what I understand. It has been my sorest part so far, I don't like to eat on that side but other than that its not that bad. Hope it all goes well I hope to get my spring off in February.

The spring pushes your teeth apart to make room for the one in between.

nvcarissa wrote:The spring pushes your teeth apart to make room for the one in between.

Or pulls them towards other teeth to close extraction gaps.

I thought only powerchains did that. I learn something new every day on this board!

nvcarissa wrote:I thought only powerchains did that. I learn something new every day on this board!

Nopers. I haven't had a powerchain yet, but I have 4 springs closing the extraction gaps. What started out as 6 mm gaps, are now down to 2mm each!

Hang in there!! Here is a pic. of my spring.....It is pushing my lowers apart to make room for the tooth behind. Also I am having the lowers "slenderized" so that the tooth can fit there. I have seen incredible movement this month. In fact my teeth look wacko from the spring pushing it......I need to get a new pic. to show the update. But here is one from Dec. It will all be worth it in the end!!
P.S. This is also before I got my ligs changed (yuk-stained) & my white wire was chipping. Now I have white ligs & fresh wire!!

I have one like this too:



It's supposed to open the gap more.

Did ianyone else notice that the spring, although really good at making room, seems to put your teeth in a funky position? Like, I know mine aren't as straight anymore.

I had a spring put into my mouth a long while ago (back in September) and didn't see any movement until maybe about a month ago. Here's the space it has created so far:





It all really depends on how crowded/crooked/funky your teeth are to begin with. Another poster a while ago told me that it takes a substantially greater amount of time to create space among the lower laterals since the bone is denser than in the upper jaw. I did start to grow a little impatient at not seeing any improvement, but then one day, all of a sudden, there was a little gap - and it's been growing ever since!

Thanks everyone. Especially those pictures that was great. It's only been two days I guess since I had the adjustment and these springs on, so I probably should just be patient as well. haha. I can kinda see how they're going to work now, thanks to some explanations and I can kinda see my teeth moving (oh so slowly) so that there will be room . I'll let you know how it goes.

hi, I had 2 springs on the bottom for quite a while-probably 3-4 mos. or so-they didn't seem like they were doing anything-but then he took them out so they must've done their job I had 4 extractions and he was trying to move teeth into the space where the teeth were pulled. Pretty amazing how it worked.

I do remember after I ate and if my tongue would go over to that side and the spring would pinch my tongue..ouch!

renee

Hey, glad I could help out some, Kim. I know it can get pretty frustrating at times when you can't see any progress! At my last visit they told me they would "activate" my spring at that appointment. I wasn't exactly sure what they meant by that, and I didn't ask, but I did start seeing a space start to form the very next evening.

Anyhow, much luck with your treatment, Kim. Everything will come out very nicely.

I had two springs forever in over two baby canines and my ortho never told me why! They were used to make space to bring down my impacted canines. THey work but they were pretty annoying. THey would always get caught on my lips.

Good luck! Hope you see some progress soon!

-Hannah




Top braces: 4/28/04
Bottom braces: 11/16/05
Next Adjustment was 1/11/06 but now is rescheduled to 1/21/06