Metal Mouth Message Board

I had an adjustment about 2 weeks ago and I noticed a few days after that when I flossed my wire was loose and my floss inadvertently got passed through to the next tooth. Upon closer inspection I noticed my wire wasn't completely secured in the bracket. It doesn't hurt at all; I'm just wondering if I need to have it fixed or can it wait til my next visit?

I would imagine that your ortho would want it fixed right away. If I were you, I would definitely call and ask them right away.

Hi maddiesmom,

This happened to me with a lower molar about 2 weeks after my braces went on. The ortho's instructions were to try and get the wire back into the bracket if at all possible using tweezers or my fingers. My back brackets have little "tubes" so it was fairly easy -- with some maneuvering I was able to get it back in after about 10 minutes or so of struggling with it.

He also said if I couldn't get it back in, to call and have it fixed, or just to clip the wire behind the last tooth where it's attached and wait till next adjustment.

Hope that helps!!

MaddiesMom,

I had an adjustment about 2 weeks ago and I noticed a few days after that when I flossed my wire was loose and my floss inadvertently got passed through to the next tooth.

Is this because your lig is not there? What kind of braces do you have? I have damon3 (no ligs) and the floss passes over the bracket to the next tooth all the time. It *would* make flossing more convenient if the floss didn't get a little ripped up in the process.

I suggest that you call your ortho's office and schedule an appt. This happened to me when I had braces years ago - my lig on the back molar came off and the arch wire was then loosened. Because I wanted to be sure everything was placed back correctly so that it is doing what it should be doing, I called and they scheduled me for the same day - at that time my ortho's office was close to work, they fixed it in less than 5 minutes and it felt so much better too when the arch wire was putting pressure on my teeth like it should be. Hopefully your ortho is close to your home/work/school. My new orthodontist is less than 10 minutes away so that also makes it convenient if I have an unexpected emergency - they are always so accomodating too, so I know I wouldn't have a problem in scheduling an emergency appt.

ssfw

Is it a loose wire tie or something else? The ties will get loose and do catch the floss sometimes. If you think it may impact your treatment, by all means ask to have the ortho check it out. There is no way I would want to wait 4-5 weeks with a wire not doing its job and taking the chance that I waste precious time. I want these things off as soon as possible.

Hey
That happened to me. Brushing my teeth one day I noticed that it had popped off. I called my ortho the next day and he wanted it put back into place right away (instead of waiting until my next adjustment). It is worth a phone call to check it out!
Good Luck!!

I would call the ortho and see what he wants to do.

My wire popped out several times (when using the first thin, round wire), but I had little to no trouble getting it back in. My technique: use a pair of tweezers, and grab the wire with them. Then, slide the tweezers to almost the end of the wire (or grab it at the end, easier grabbing and sliding though from my experiance). Once you have the end of the wire, leaving just a bit sticking out to line up with the hole on the back bracket, twist the tweezers so the wire curves inward toward your tongue. Once you have the curve in there, you can kinda pull the wire out, maintaining the curve, and lining up the wire with the hole.

Having the curve is the most important part, without that I wasn't able to get even close to lining the wire up with the hole. You just curve the wire, then pull it outwards and line them up, get the bit of wire in the hole and grab the bent piece of wire in the middle, press it in and slide the wire the rest of the way. This is with damon3s so not sure if it'd be different with other brackets. Or as the above posters said, you could just go into your ortho's office