Brackets placed extremely close to gumline?

[MoonSwan]

Hello all,

I got my braces on 2 days ago on April 23rd, and I've noticed that a majority of the brackets were placed so close to my gums that you can't even see part of the tooth above or below the bracket - just the gum. Is this normal? I'm concerned because I've heard that your gum can grow down/up farther over the tooth and I don't want that to happen.

I would ask my ortho, but for some reason he didn't want to see me again for 2 whole months (which seems like a long time for my first checkup to me), so any insight would be very helpful.

[ditsy]

My back brackets are close to my gums the last two are very close. It really hurt to floss around them till I got use to it. I have a check up on Monday so will ask x

[MoonSwan]

Thank you! I appreciate any help I can get. Most of the brackets on my molars are close to my gums as well, but both of my top lateral incisors pretty much have the brackets on my gums and I'm not sure why. My ortho really didn't tell me anything. :/

[clouds1]

My brackets are very close to my gums on my molars. Its quite hard to clean some of them.
My appointments are every 2 months also and I have damon braces.

[ItsFreyja]

Orthos have specific clinical reasons when they choose not to place a bracket at the center of the tooth and it totally depends on your case. I don't think gums "grow over" teeth unless the ortho is dramatically intruding the teeth; if you've seen someone with braces and gross puffy gums it's probably because their hygiene is subideal. So brush and floss those teeth especially carefully, and definitely call your ortho if you find the gums becoming inflamed despite your best efforts!

[PhDGuy]

I agree with what ItsFreyja has said. Your ortho knows what he/she is doing and the bracket placement is dependent on what the needs for your specific case are. From what I understand, If the teeth need to be extruded, the bracket will be placed closer to the gingival surface of the tooth and if they need to be intruded, the bracket placement will be on the other end. That allows for the teeth to be moved up or down and an opportunity to even up and align your arch. In my case, on some of my teeth, the brackets are close to the gingival surface but on the others they are closer to the biting surface of the tooth. So don't worry about the bracket placement or gum growing over the bracket. Just keep up with excellent dental hygiene and you should have nothing to worry about!

Also, as far as your first check up being 2 months from your banding/bonding date, it might be partially dependent on your bracket system and what the ortho is trying to initially achieve and how long it might possibly take. As far as brackets are concerned, self-ligating brackets require less "maintenance" if you will, and therefore, the ortho visits are spaced further apart. I got my Damon braces on April 13th and my first adjustment visit was originally scheduled for June 9th but got moved to June 4th, so that's almost 2 months.

[robgs]

Just keep a really good dental hygiene and you should be good to go! Brush after every meal and floss once a day. If it's still bothering that much you can try calling your orthodontist to ask whether [s]he meant to place the brackets there, which is very likely [s]he did. Asking can't hurt though!

[LittleSern]

My ortho also placed all of my brackets right up against my gum line. I was curious so I did some research, and then later asked my ortho about it and what his strategy is.

At first I was concerned because the google search I did for brackets placed close to gum line indicated that you do that in order to extrude teeth (bring them out), but then I realized that is only true if the brackets *around* that tooth are not close to the gum. It all depends on the relative position of the brackets to each other. For example, if the brackets on the teeth around the tooth that has the bracket close to the gum line *aren't* close to the gum line, then yes, there would be pressure pulling that tooth down since the relative position of that bracket is higher than the others. But if all of the brackets are close to the gum line then the extrusion won't happen.

I actually just had my 2nd appointment with my ortho 2 days ago (like you, my 2nd appt was 2 months after the braces were put on) and I asked him why he placed all of my brackets so close to the gum line. He said that a lot of Damon doctors place the brackets close to the gum line (I got Damon braces), and that the reason is that the center of resistance of your tooth is above the tooth closer to the root (in your gums), and the closer the bracket is to the center of resistance, the less force needed to actually move the tooth. If you think about the physics of it, it makes sense. If you have short arms/legs it's a lot easier to move the same weight than it is for a taller person with longer arms/legs.

Your ortho definitely has a strategy in mind, so don't worry!

Hope this helps!

[sneed1o1]

My ortho also placed all of my brackets right up against my gum line. I was curious so I did some research, and then later asked my ortho about it and what his strategy is.

At first I was concerned because the google search I did for brackets placed close to gum line indicated that you do that in order to extrude teeth (bring them out), but then I realized that is only true if the brackets *around* that tooth are not close to the gum. It all depends on the relative position of the brackets to each other. For example, if the brackets on the teeth around the tooth that has the bracket close to the gum line *aren't* close to the gum line, then yes, there would be pressure pulling that tooth down since the relative position of that bracket is higher than the others. But if all of the brackets are close to the gum line then the extrusion won't happen.

I actually just had my 2nd appointment with my ortho 2 days ago (like you, my 2nd appt was 2 months after the braces were put on) and I asked him why he placed all of my brackets so close to the gum line. He said that a lot of Damon doctors place the brackets close to the gum line (I got Damon braces), and that the reason is that the center of resistance of your tooth is above the tooth closer to the root (in your gums), and the closer the bracket is to the center of resistance, the less force needed to actually move the tooth. If you think about the physics of it, it makes sense. If you have short arms/legs it's a lot easier to move the same weight than it is for a taller person with longer arms/legs.

Your ortho definitely has a strategy in mind, so don't worry!

Hope this helps!

Thank you for this explanation! My teeth protrude forward, and I was wondering why some of the brackets were sitting so close to my gumline! This was very unusual compared to my first round in braces! My orthodontist also says that my roots are short on my bottom front teeth. Hopefully this won't be an issue later