Metal Mouth Message Board

I am just wondering what the surgical hooks are that the orthodontist puts on prior to the surgery? He said they are not all that comfortable and am now wondering if they are big and bulky. Which teeth are they usuallly on? I am getting them on a week before my surgery in October and am planning a surprise party a few days after ... hoping that I don't have huge hooks hanging out ..??

They're not really any bigger than the hooks that you (almost certainly) have on the brackets on your canine teeth - same size hook and similarly-sized blob of metal on the end of it. There are just more of them than you have now.

I had an extra 3 crimped onto each archwire: at the top, one between the molar bands and canines on each side, plus one in the centre between my front teeth, and on the bottom, 3 fairly evenly-spaced between the canines (with one being in the centre between my front teeth).

I think they can be uncomfortable because they're a new piece of hardwire poking into soft bits of your mouth. The rest of your mouth will have got used to the hardware long ago, so it can be like week 1 of braces again, with a need for wax and salt-water rinses.

I only got a sore spot from the lower hook in the middle, but it toughened up after a few days.

Are the surgical hooks the ones they put on a week before surgery to use for the bands after surgery? If so i think i had 8 on orinally, they did hurt a bit for the 1st week as with any new part of the brace your gums and cheeks have to ajust to them. I still have 4 left 10 weeks post opp. There not that big but not tiny either dont worry about it though they just kinda blend into the brace

on your first app with ortho after surgery, do they take most of the hooks off the wire?

Not for me, no. I still have all my upper hooks. At 3 weeks, they swapped my lower archwire for a braided steel wire to help close my posterior open bite, so the lower surgical hooks came off when those wires were changed.

There seems to be fairly common use of elastics post-surgery, to retrain the jaw muscles. Your ortho may wish to keep using some of the hooks for that, as they have done with me.