Metal Mouth Message Board

for those of you who have had refinements, did your ortho take off all the buttons before they took the impression or did they leave them on and take the impressions?

I'm asking because my ortho took the impressions with my attachments still on and I just got my new refinements and I've noticed that I have big air pockets where the buttons left a path when they pushed on the mold for the impressions. Meaning instead of the pocket in the aligner fitting snugly against the shape of the button I have big wide bubbles in the aligners that are way bigger than the actual shape of the button. (does this make sense?) Is this okay? or should I be concerned? I mean, doesn't that just defeat the purpose of the buttons?

Do you still have the attatchments? I'm nearly finished with mine and I'll need attatchments, god I hope he takes the buttons off I've got loads!!!
How long did it take for your refinements to come?
Did you have to wear your last tray whilst waiting?

My attachments were removed.

I can't see that leaving them on would work for the very reason you are having issues now. Also, my refinements resulted in attachments on different teeth to the first time around.

In our office, we generally remove all attachments as we go into refinement. The reason is because the resin can discolour somewhat and may be in a bit of a different shape. It is also helpful to look a the teeth without attachments to help determine what movements are still required.

That being said it is ok to leave the attachments on the teeth before taking the impressions for refinement. In fact, there are instances where doctors place resin onto the teeth to create their own attachments prior to taking an impression.

In these situations, it may make capturing an impression more difficult, but can be done. There should be no streaks or bubbles in the impression and should be an exact representation of what your teeth look like, with the attachments of course. Inaccurate impressions at any stage will compromise the fit of the aligners and may negatively affect treatment.