Metal Mouth Message Board

I'm still just as ugly as ever after my 4 extractions

I have similar thoughts about a couple of my teeth, but at the end of the day there is a reason I'm not the orthodontist.

You are very right --- living with braces is no problem.

I have so many other things (wife, kids, church, job, golf, etc) that the braces rarely cross my mind during the day.

what I have may not be a powerchain. The ortho refers to it as a "light chain."

They are changed frequently and are stretched out when they are taken out.


The springs are pesky. . .. they pinch. . ..they push. . . . i suppose they do their job

He told me from the beginning that if the RPE didn't work, we'd have to compromise by pulling teeth.

If money were no object, I'd have gone the SARPE route. However, money is a big deal.

The results I get will be fine. I'm simply looking for straight teeth and a better bite

My ortho said that I'm one of the 5% of his adult patients that didn't expand properly with the RPE. His theory was that my bones may have become a lot more dense than normal due to my bad bite. He said my bite was so bad it caused trauma in the roots of my premolars. We were both a little surprised...

What the heck stops the teeth from just tipping? Nothing --- I think they need to be tipped, so to speak. I have a chain on my bottom molar. It stretches across the extraction gap and attaches to the next tooth (can't recall the correct name). I was told today that the lower wire will be put on soo...

lkw130 wrote:You can have a power chain without a wire?

I feel so silly I never realized that before...

Yep. . . . .just really strong rubber bands attached to the brackets

Before my extractions, my lower teeth were wrapped in chains (all but the very front teeth).

I have power chains on my lower teeth, but i don't have a wire on them yet.

Looks like the chains are pulling and the springs are pushing.

My upper arch wire is wrapped in two places in what appears to be springs.

I'm guessing they are pushing a couple of my teeth back to close some gaps where my premolars were removed.

I feel a good bit of pressure since they were put on today.


Anyone else have these spring things?

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y169/bhogg/Teeth/100_3546.jpg Here's today's pic. I had chains put on bottom. I might have the bottoms fully wired in 2-4 weeks. I had a new wire put up top. The wire has some springs, which I assume will push some of my teeth back towards my molar. The extractions ...

The Movie was great!

I'm feeling fine and eating normally.


I get chains on Tuesday morning. I'm not sure if he'll bracket the rest of the lowers or not.


He did say that results would come quickly at this point. I'm guessing he plans on closing those gaps ASAP.

I've had both. I initially had an expander. It did some good, but just didn't give my doc the space he needed. Sooooo, I had 4 premolars pulled today. If my other option was surgery, I would not have chosen that route. I anticipated the extractions so it was no big deal. Now I have a lot of room and...

well, it was more blood than I was expecting, but other than that it was cool. I kinda liked the crunching sound the teeth made as they left my jaw :) Yeah, I'm weird like that. The bleeding finally stopped about an hour ago, so I've inhaled some taters, mac n cheese, and a gooey gooey brownie. I'm ...

Well, I'm scheduled for 4 extractions next Friday. I'm having 2 bicuspids on the top and 2 on the bottom removed.

The expanders did as much as they could do, but it just wasn't enough.

No big deal. I've taken the entire day off.