Metal Mouth Message Board

How often do you see your orthodontist to have your wires and rubber bands changed? My orthodontist had me coming every 4 weeks to start, then it was every 3 weeks, now next time he asked me to come back in 2 weeks. Is that normal, or okay for your teeth?

Every case is different. I started with 6-8 weeks between adjustments. I'm down to 4 weeks between adjustments because I'm in powerchains.

This topic should be posted in the Metal Mouth Forum. This board is for Orthognathic Surgery (oral and jaw surgery) topics

Sorry! I just figured it was related since its part of the whole surgery thing thats going to happen in 2 months! I didn't know if it was normal as you get closer to your surgery date. I'm also in powerchains..

Oh! I gotcha. You didn't mention surgery in this post!

I imagine that as you get closer to surgery, your appointments will be closer together. I'm sure there is someone out there that is a little more versed than I am...I'm still a ways away from surgery!

After surgery, and starting one week post-op, I started seeing my ortho once per week for around 8 weeks.

I had braces on for a year before my surgery and had two orthodontists during that time. My first changed bands and wire every time, but my second just changed bands to steel ties and back to bands while keeping the wires the same for a few months at a time. Depending on what they are trying to do with your teeth will determine how often and what methods they use during your meetings. Thicker wires will move your teeth into alignment faster and steel ties will prevent your brackets from moving from the wire too much. Two months before my surgery my ortho decided to rotate one tooth more so he steel tied it on a thicker wire to move it and in two weeks came back and then went back to bands and thinner wire.

Didn't see you were getting surgery either, but as you get closer your ortho will do final adjustments before putting your teeth into a holding pattern. I got molds done three weeks prior for my surgeon then got hooks on the wire between brackets for surgery. That was the last time I saw my ortho. Now after my surgery, my surgeon and ortho coordinated a date when my splint gets removed to put in a thicker wire to keep my teeth in place after that.

I can't blame the ortho for wanting to make sure everything is perfect going into the big day. What he wants to keep from happening is your teeth shifting and you having to re-schedule your surgery. The better your pre-surgical position, the better the surgery will turn out.

And, you get to look forward to a whole pile of impressions being made (for both your records, your splint, and your special "surgical models", which are very different from the kind your ortho keeps in a drawer) and you'll get your "surgical hooks" a week or two before the big day. Any long spans of archwire with no hooks (like your front teeth or wide molars) get hooks attached to your "surgical wire" (which is usually the biggest, strongest, rectangular wire your ortho has.

The hooks are used to wire your jaw shut during surgery, and for your post-surgical rubber bands, which can range from barely-there to might-as-well-be-wired in strength. (Mine were the really light kind, but every surgery is different.)