What is in your mouth? What’s on my teeth?

Brackets are the silver squares that are on the cheek side surface of your teeth. They have a door system which opens to get the wire out and closes to hold the wire in place. Some of the brackets have elastic posts on them. If a post is needed, we can add them onto the bracket

Color dots: These let us know which bracket goes on which tooth. These dots will brush away after the first couple times you brush your teeth.

Archwires: The wires are what are going through each bracket. As treatment progresses, we will change the wires and moving to stronger wires to help the teeth align.

The first wires are very thin flexible wire and most times the wire does not go through the last brackets. We turn the wires into a loop so it doesn’t poke in the back. With the teeth moving, that wire can get longer in the back and sometime cause a wire poke. If this happens, please give the office a call and we can help you take care of it.

The archwires are what move the teeth within the bracket system. The first few appointments, we progress through a sequence of flexible wires. These get the teeth in alignment within the individual arches. After these, we move to stainless steel wires. The stainless steel wires are what we consider to be the “working” wires. These wires allow us to make bends in the wire to individually move a tooth, close any spaces and we can start elastics to work on a patient’s bite.

Wire Stops: There are tiny silver tubes over the archwires in the front (usually two on the top wire and one on the bottom wire) that help us hold the wire in place.

Bite turbos: This is the pink material that we put on the back teeth to prevent you from biting on the lower brackets. At first, they will be annoying. Initially, they may be the only thing that you can bite on but over time they will wear down. If they are still there when the teeth are leveled out, Dr. Bart will take them off.

What should I do if…

a back bracket comes off that does not have a wire going through it?

• Save the bracket.
• Call the office to let us know.
• Bring it to the next appointment and we’ll put it back on.

a bracket comes off of the tooth but is sliding on the wire?

• Save the bracket.
• Call the office to let us know.
• Bring it to the next appointment and we’ll put it back on.

a wire breaks?

• Call the office to let us know.
• We will schedule you in to repair it as soon as possible.