At my last visit to the orthodontist, I thought he was going to start pulling the front teeth back together. But one of the side teeth had moved in, so he had to work on pulling it back out. So this visit, the side tooth was back where it was supposed to be. So he put a power chain on the front.
Also, one of my teeth is a prosthetic tooth. It was the center tooth of a three tooth bridge. But when installing my braces, he cut the bridge appart. The one tooth has been just mounted to the wire and pivots around a bit. Since it flips around on the wire, the bracket gets extra wear and tear. It has broke several times. Each time, they had mounted a new ceramic bracket ont hat tooth. But when they went to mount it on the wire it would fit funny. So they would grind it down a little to fit. After several times of this, the tooth was too small. A sort of nub. SO last time they said they would make me a new prosthetic tooth. Which they did today. They pulled out some samples. FOund one that matched the color of my teeth. With a little bit of shaping, the tooth blended right in. The top of the tooth is higher than the other teeth. But if I just smile, you cant tell. I actually have to lift my lip to see that it is higher on the gum line. But it looks much better than the nub that I had.
Also, on my last visit to the peridontist, they found a little bit of decay on one of the teeth near one of my brackets. Actually when she hit the spot with a probe, I jumped a foot out of the chair. Anyway, the orthodontist said I don’t need the brack on that tooth right at this moment, so he pulled it off. I called and made an appointment with the dentist to get it filled. That appointment is on April 16th. Then on my next visit to the orthodontist, I think he will remount that bracket.
I had my orthodontist appointment. I have had a wire pushing my upper front teeth forward so they are out over the lowers. The wire has only been attached to the front four teeth and the rear molars. The front teeth are now forward enough. So I thought he would start closing all the gaps between the teeth this time. But some of the side teeth had moved a little in. So he decided to attach the wire to all al the teeth again, but not work on closing the gaps yet. He said that having the teeth all lined up and pushing them along the wire is pretty easy. So the plan is on my next visit in 5 weeks, that they will using rubber bands to bring the teeth together. Not sure if it will be a powerchain or what.
The dental assistant commented on my prosthetic tooth. It is a small nub now. It was part of a 3 tooth bridge which they cut appart. It is just attached to the wire. The bracket has come off several times. And when they have remounted the bracket, it didn’t fit right, so they ground the tooth down so it would fit. So after being ground down two or three times, it is small, and doen’t look right. The dental assistant said she is going to make me another prosthetic tooth on my next visit.
I have had my braces on now for over 2 years. I asked about how long it was still going to take. I am pretty patient. But people keep asking me how long I will have them on. He guessed about 6-9 months.
I visited the orthodontist today for the first time since November. He was very happy with how my teeth are moving. Last time he changed the wire on the uppers. There was small bends in the wires towards the back to keep them from sliding through the brackets on the very back. The wire was then attached only to the front four upper teeth. There were a little bit of bow in the wire to push the teeth forward.
So on this visit, he removed the wire, and stretched out the small bends in the back by about a millimeter each.This will add 2mm to the length of the wire, and help advance the front teeth forward a little more. My prosthetic tooth is pushed out farther and is kind of floating now. The assistant asked if I would like them to remove it. But the thought of a big gap in my front teeth wasn’t appealing. I told her to leave it in. I am used to it floating some anyway.
One of the bottom molars seemed to have moved in a little bit. She had to push the wire over into the bracket. She put a ligature on it, but that wasn’t enough. So she attached the wire to the bracket using a small twisted wire thing. It was a little uncomfortable at first, but I don’t even notice it now.
He said to schedule my next appointment in 3 to 4 weeks. So they scheduled my next appointment for the last Tuesday of January.
I had my orthodontic appointment this morning. My teeth are making progress. The gaps in my lower teeth are gone, so they removed the power chain. I now have just the regular little ligatures installed on the bottom.
The teeth on my upper-left are seeming to stay out over the bottom teeth, so I don’t have to where the rubber bands anymore…at least for now. They removed the button that was attached to the inside of the one upper tooth.
He wants to get the upper teeth to move out and forward now. So he replaced the wire that was on my upper teeth. He took a longer wire and made sharp little bends in it that will be positioned just in front of the brackets on my back molars. This will extend the front of the wire out forward. I now have ligatures on the top teeth only on the front four teeth. So the wire is unattached on the sides, and wire is slightly pressing the upper front teeth forward. It feels weird while eat and brushing to have the wire loose on the sides.
My next appointment is in the first week of Janurary.
My next appointment was scheduled for November 5th. But today after lunch, the ceramic bracket on my prosthetic tooth broke. The prosthetic tooth gets pushed all over the place when I eat, and that puts strain on the bracket which eventually breaks. I called my orthodontist, and they were able to get me in today. I just expected to have the bracket fixed. But with my next appointment so close, he decided to go ahead and do the adjustment today. He checked my teeth and was happy with the movement of the top teeth out over the bottom teeth on the left side. He said I only need to wear the rubber band at night when I am sleeping. He had the assistant install a powerchain on my bottom teeth. A powerchain is like a whole set of the little ligatures all linked together. It kind of looks like “0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0″. The power chain was installed instead of the ligatures.
Apparently the powerchain is used to close any gaps between the teeth (not that I have any major gaps). I think it may help pull the lower teeth back so that the upper teeth will come out over them.
I am a little concerned about staining. The ligatures get stained easily, but they are somewhat obscured being wrapped around the bracket. But the powerchain will be much more visible.