Damon braces, upper and lower

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Slack
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:56 am
Location: Portugal

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#16 Post by Slack »

Hi,

I also have bite blockers, it certainly contributes for my openbite to look even more... open (about 2-3mm now, could be worse). I do feel my bite changing everyday, don't really know if it's the teeth moving, or the molar build-ups going down ;) probably the last...

The elastics did gave me some mild discomfort for the first time I put them on, after a couple of hours wearing them. Nothing too bad - my jaw felt "awkward" for being pulled up all the time, as if it were kind of sore/tired, and I felt it more when I went to bed that day. Now, 6 days have passed and it's no big deal anymore.
About the inconvenience, I guess it has something to do with the configuration - mine are a couple of triangles, each grabbing lower canine, pre-molar, and upper canine. I might get used to them someday, can't really tell yet, but not sure if I'm willing to try. Not wearing them now, I'm at work :oops:.
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quentin
Posts: 66
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2013 5:34 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#17 Post by quentin »

I totally can imagine the awkwardness of wearing the elastics at work. I have an underbite that has improved a lot, but I suspect elastics might be in my future.... And I have a feeling I wouldn't want to be wearing them when meeting clients either! :oops:
Braced: 11 Feb 2013
Debraced: 13 Aug 2014
Expected duration: 24 months
Actual duration: 18 months
Damon Clear uppers (all); Damon metal lowers
http://fullmetalpanda.wordpress.com/
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Slack
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:56 am
Location: Portugal

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#18 Post by Slack »

A nice thing about elastics, is that you can put them on and off anytime. For example, if you spend many hours on travel, you can still use them in the car/plane/whatever and take them off on arrival, it's that easy.
Unless, of course, if it affects your speech and you spend a lot of time on the phone :)
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plugnickel69
Posts: 526
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 10:15 am

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#19 Post by plugnickel69 »

I wear mine all the time, at work and at play. Nobody cares. You're getting treatment to fix your teeth and the elastics are part of the treatment. I obviously wouldn't want to wear them in public if they were in the very front, but otherwise there's no problem. I'm meeting with clients all the time and I've never caught anyone staring at my mouth.
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Slack
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:56 am
Location: Portugal

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#20 Post by Slack »

You're right, I know you are, and I really should be wearing these all the time too, but it really messes with my speech (and no, it's not just me that notices it :)). Until I get used to them, I don't think I'll bring them along...

Thank god I can't take my braces off, I would probably do the same!! LOL
On second thought, who wouldn't? :twisted:
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plugnickel69
Posts: 526
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 10:15 am

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#21 Post by plugnickel69 »

I have the same elastics configuration as you do. I sometimes notice a slight lisp and wonder why as there's nothing inside of my mouth to hit my tongue and my tongue does not hit the elastics when I pronounce my esses. No one else seems to notice or at least has not said anything. I figure the longer I wear them the faster they'll work.
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Tobilei
Posts: 1613
Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2012 8:46 pm

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#22 Post by Tobilei »

Slack wrote:You're right, I know you are, and I really should be wearing these all the time too, but it really messes with my speech (and no, it's not just me that notices it :)). Until I get used to them, I don't think I'll bring them along...

Thank god I can't take my braces off, I would probably do the same!! LOL
On second thought, who wouldn't? :twisted:
Haha, this is exactly why I got braces and not invisalign. I'm sure I would have been popping them out far too frequently for my own good!
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Slack
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:56 am
Location: Portugal

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#23 Post by Slack »

It's been 12.5weeks now, and it won't take long before I start counting months instead of weeks :) oh, I just realised it's been exactly 3 months, today! Time does fly when you're "having fun" :crazy:

Had an appointment last saturday, and my lower wire was replaced back to a round one again (downgrade), mostly because of a rotated tooth that couldn't be "grabbed" with the stiffer rectangular wire (it was attached to it with o'rings, but that wasn't working fast enough). So, I'm back at a round wire, even though it's somewhat bigger than the initial one - 0.016 instead of 0.014. But it's working, my tooth has rotated about half way in just a few days, and next appt I should go back to 0.014x0.025. My top wire remains the same for now (already at 14x25), it should upgrade next time also.

I'm still on elastics (side triangles), and that is also working fine. My ortho could see improvement, even though I didn't wear them 24/7 :oops: of course I told him that, he just replied that the more I use it, the faster it is, blah blah blah. Ok, it's working nevertheless :) and he gave me yet another elastic, to wear upfront (to punish me, certainly), but this one at night only. And... my bite is almost closed now :jump:

Take care everyone
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pony3333
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat May 04, 2013 9:27 am

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#24 Post by pony3333 »

such an amazing progress in 8weeks!
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maria82
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun May 12, 2013 10:12 pm

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#25 Post by maria82 »

Amazing progress for the time taken.
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Slack
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:56 am
Location: Portugal

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#26 Post by Slack »

I'm also surprised, never thought it would be so fast to get those teeth straight - they were my main reason to get braces in the first place, really.

But at week 13, progress is a lot slower, no more "easy" teeth to fix. Just widening the arch (bottom mostly), closing my bite (1mm now) and a few more tweaks. If all goes well, I expect to get rid of these by the end of the year, let's see.

I'm at the point where my braces don't bother me at all - nothing's hurting, I can eat anything (having removed bite blocks helped a LOT), and often forget I'm wearing them. All that can change in my next appt, though :) my ortho told me that I should get rid of my wisdom teeth, anytime soon...
One of them is interfering!!! And the rest just aren't needed anyway... so it seems... :shock:
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Slack
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:56 am
Location: Portugal

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#27 Post by Slack »

I know, I shouldn't be using this thread as diary, but here goes...

Had another appointment yesterday (week 16, almost 4 months), and my upper wire was changed... again - it's now .018x0.025 NiTi (previous was 0.014). Not a big difference, but some of my back teeth are a bit more sensible today. It's stiffer, no doubt about it.

On the lower ones, I'm back to a rectangular 0.014 wire again. My rotated tooth is almost straight and the wire can now grab it easily.

I'll continue to wear elastics, same configuration. They seem to be doing their job (despite my reluctance to wear them by day ;)), as my bite is getting better every day. The ortho liked the results, according to him the back molars are looking fine (sooner than he was expecting, too) and my up/down bite is a nice match already - only the front teeth need to close down a bit more.
He also said that next step will be tooth tweaking :) since the "hard job" is almost done (consolidation period still needed, of course). Nice :HugeGrin:
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Slack
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:56 am
Location: Portugal

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#28 Post by Slack »

Forgot to add a photo. Here goes - 16 weeks and counting!
It really feels like my arch has expanded a bit, maybe it's just me.

Image

Lower teeth are not perfect yet, the ortho said it's time to reposition some brackets... they're not too bad anyway.
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TMJJill
Posts: 827
Joined: Sat Oct 29, 2011 7:18 pm

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#29 Post by TMJJill »

I'm in Damon's too. My upper arch went from about twin size to king size according to my dr.

It looks like you are making good progress with your upper arch.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like one of your lower brackets is open and you can see the archwire. You might want to check. If so, you should be able to pop it closed yourself.
Image

Braces as Phase II treatment for TMJD.
Lower mandibular repositioning splint 26 months.
Lower braces on 10.75 months into Phase II treatment.
Duration in braces: 2 years, 2 weeks, 5 days
Removal of Braces: September 18, 2013
TMJD treatment now complete!
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Slack
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:56 am
Location: Portugal

Re: Damon braces, upper and lower

#30 Post by Slack »

You're right, it seems to be open in the photo... anyway, it's closed now, don't know what happened there :)

About my arch, it's getting harder to overlap my top lip over the brackets now, at-rest... the only time I felt that was when I had a coil spring at front...

I'm still amazed on how fast these things move :)
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