Stainless steel wire?

[almost40]

Currently I am 3 months into my 24+ month treatment to fix my deep bite. For the first couple of months I had the NiTi archwires, then my ortho placed me into round stainless steels. Now, he started me on class 2 elastics.

I’ve read that stainless steel wires don’t have memory shape. My teeth are still not in the arch shape they need to be and some are still rotated. So My question is what is going on right now? Are the arch wires just holding everything in place while he shifts my bite?

I was under the assumption that all the teeth had to be in their proper place before the bite is adjusted.

[Speck]

Some info that might help:
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Phase one

During the very first stage of your life in braces brackets are bonded to individual teeth. In many cases, it is only the maxillary (upper) teeth brackets that are applied in this initial stage.
A low and constant pressure is applied along the archwire that is attached to the brackets which causes tension and compression on your teeth and periodontal ligaments. This causes bone around your teeth to be broken down (resorption) on one side of the tooth and created (deposition) on the other side of the tooth.
This pressure will help to align your teeth in fairly short period (in some cases, the results are visible within 3 months (depending on the initial state of the teeth’s alignment). The overall tooth alignment is a requirement before your orthodontist moves forward with the lengthier part of your treatment—fitting your teeth together.


Phase two

The next portion of the treatment is the longer portion of your treatment and can take anywhere from 12 to 18 months to complete. It involves correcting your bite so that your aligned teeth now fit together. The process of aligning your teeth has the knock on effect of changing the way they fit together in your mouth.
For this portion, braces are ordinarily applied to both the maxillary (upper) and mandibular (lower) teeth to get the two sets of teeth to “fit” them and match them to one another so that your upper teeth will fit perfectly over your lower teeth. In other words, to give you a proper bite.
This involves getting a normal curve to both sets of teeth, achieving the correct angle on the teeth roots and to move the upper and lower arches into the correct position. This in done in three planes: front to back, side to side, and top to bottom.
A wider and stiffer archwire is normally used in the bite adjustment phase. Additionally, to aid in repositioning the jaw, elastics can be use in any number of configurations depending on the nature of malocclusion.
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Cheers!

[almost40]

Thank you Speck, that is helpful! So sounds like I am in phase 2, and he is correcting my bite front to back at the moment. Do the round stainless steel wires expand arches? He told me that they do but I can’t find any information on the internet regarding this. The only thing I see about expanding arches involves those expanders, which I won’t be using.

[Jami1]

I had the same question.... I am about 6 months in and will be getting stainless steel wires and likely bands next month. I still have a couple of teeth that aren’t perfectly aligned. I am hoping they will continue in their alignment once bite correction begins as I don’t think I will mind the additional pain nearly as much if my teeth appear perfectly straight. Thoughts on that “straightening”???

[assertives]

Minor alignment related adjustments can be done in stainless steel wires. My ortho made a couple of bends in the wire to make 2 of my teeth rotate into alignment with the rest. I saw movement in less than 24 hours.