Cheek/wire irritation at extraction site

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#1 Post by **braceface418** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 8:24 pm

I had my brackets and wire put on my uppers and lowers today and had my four 1st pre-molars extracted a few weeks ago. I've been drinking plenty of water and liberally applying dental wax to hot spots. Problem is, I'm having a hard time getting the dental wax to stay stuck to the wires where I'm now missing teeth, especially without brackets to help glob it on. Suggestions? Does the silicon-based dental wax have better retention?

Thanks!

#2 Post by **Yolanda** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 1:42 am

Hi Lenoreo,
I had that problem as well when i first got mine on. I found the best thing was to tough it out although it hurts the cheeks toughen up pretty quick. With the wax i found if you roll it into a sausage and plant it onto the 2 teeth either side of the bare wire and then kinda wedge the blank wire into the wax for some relief.
If you are using the wax just use it in the day at night go bare and your cheeks will harden up.

#3 Post by **AngelRuse** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 3:00 pm

I also had that problem...ugh, what a pain. Me I ended up using like 2 wax dots from a packet...molding them together kinda and then sticking one sort of onto the nearest bracket while smoothing as much as I could backwards to cover the bare wire.

Be careful with too much wax use though...I found it actually irritated my extraction sites if they couldn't "breathe".

#4 Post by **braceface418** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:45 pm

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I'll be picking up more soup and protein drinks tomorrow, so I'll have to look for some of those smaller straws while I'm out. If only I had known to add "drinking straw" to my customary search before posting.

With any luck, they won't bother me long enough to justify ordering anything by mail, but it's good to know the option is out there.

My cheeks otherwise seem to be toughening up fairly well. Unknown to me, years of janky teeth rubbing in to the side of my cheeks has apparently prepared me for the introductory period of being braced.

#5 Post by **Lola** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:16 am

I had that- the wire over the extraction gaps can dig in like a razor blade!I mentioned it to the assistant and she just bent it in.. seems funny now considering that I read here all the little bends make a difference to movement, but it helped anyway!

#6 Post by **catfish** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 8:38 pm

My ortho put a "bumper" on the expanse of wire, and it has never hurt a bit. You might ask your ortho to do this for you.