I haven't posted in quite a while. Things are going pretty well, except for the few days of discomfort after an adjustment. However, I have a question; unfortunately, I'm not sure of the terminology and am hoping someone can interpret for me.
The adjustment before yesterday, they banded my back molars on top, which had not been banded before. They had used a 14 x 25 (square) wire before that, but dropped back to a round wire to incorporate those back teeth. This time, they were moving back up to the square wire, and they banded the very back bottom teeth. The ortho was going to do a 14x 25 there, too, because that is what had been on before. And she was extending the power chains on the bottom to close gaps. I had a little gap between some side teeth, they moved that to the front, then created more room by moving teeth to front of bone, yadayada. Anyway, the upshot is that they will be creating and closing gaps on the bottom until all the teeth are moved as forward on the bone as possible, and then they will use elastics to move my jaw....or something. Anyway, my ortho has several offices, and my preferred on closes their week on Thursday; they had only one 14 x25 left, so the ortho told the assistant to use the 14 x 25 on the top and a zero something on the bottom (018?). Does anyone know what the zero type of archwire is, and does anyone know the effects of substituting?
I've had power chains on parts of the bottom for three of four recent adjustments, but this time they seem to hurt worse than usual...and the top seems to be hurting more from the return to the square wire than it did originally. Any insights would be appreciated.
Sorry for the long post; I'm a journalist by trade so I sort of just spill words.
Thanks for any information. (As a journalist, I really should ask the orthos more questions, but I'm usually in a hurry to get out of there, and lately, with school out, there are kids everywhere and their baby brothers and sisters creating a ruckus as well. Argh!)
Yeatsmom
Substituting archwires?
Moderator: bbsadmin
Hi Yeatsmom.
I think the .018 archwire is a circular wire is it not? If it is I suspect the only difference between that and a square profile wire is it's tensile force, and elasticity.
Round wires tend to stretch more than square wires, but at the same time they are far more fragile. So far in a year I have only ever broken 1 archwire, and this was a round-profile wire. I have a gap in my teeth where I knocked a tooth out in a water-polo match in my early 20's and when I yawn the inside of my cheek presses against this gap. With the round-profile wire in place, there was obviously enough force from the yawn to snap the wire.
I don't think there will be any noticeable effects from the substitution. Square wires can generally be tightened more than round ones, so perhaps the only 'effect' as you describe is that the bottom wire could potentially be tightened a little more if it were a square one.
I think the .018 archwire is a circular wire is it not? If it is I suspect the only difference between that and a square profile wire is it's tensile force, and elasticity.
Round wires tend to stretch more than square wires, but at the same time they are far more fragile. So far in a year I have only ever broken 1 archwire, and this was a round-profile wire. I have a gap in my teeth where I knocked a tooth out in a water-polo match in my early 20's and when I yawn the inside of my cheek presses against this gap. With the round-profile wire in place, there was obviously enough force from the yawn to snap the wire.
I don't think there will be any noticeable effects from the substitution. Square wires can generally be tightened more than round ones, so perhaps the only 'effect' as you describe is that the bottom wire could potentially be tightened a little more if it were a square one.