Special brackets before surgery?

[hduggan]

First post here.

My son is having surgery (Le Fort and genioplasty) on Thursday and emailed me today from college to say that his orthodontist wants to put special brackets on before his surgery. Does everyone get these before surgery?

Thanks!

[schwin]

I did not get any special brackets, but I did get 8 surgical hooks prior to surgery.

[hduggan]

Oh, hooks, that might be what he meant. Are they something that fits on top of the brackets?

[Audra]

The hooks go between the brackets. They are for elastics.

[sauerkraut]

I had surgical brackets. They were a bit like a second tier of brackets fixed above (top jaw) and below (bottom jaw) my normal brackets. They were fixed by wires wound round each tooth. Mine weren't fitted until surgery itself, though, so I didn't know about them until I woke up. They were removed a couple of weeks later by clipping the wires.

These "extra" brackets seem to be standard practice where I live (Germany), but most people I've read about on this board just get surgical hooks instead. I only recall one other person who had the surgical braces like I had, and that was because her teeth didn't need straightening so she didn't have any regular brackets.