Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi -- I tried to search to see if these questions have been answered, but it didn't work. So, if someone has addressed this before, I apologize in advance. First of all, I have been wearing my elastics for Class II (overbite and about a 6 mm overjet) non-stop 24/7 since March. My ortho hinted at the last visit, that maybe I wasn't wearing them all the time. He feels that I haven't had enough movement.(I'm about a 3mm with the overjet now) Therefore he has me using 2 elastics on each side! (The Moose- for those of you in Damons) He says if he doesn't see enough progress, he'll put in some device. Has anyone experienced this before? The other question...he couldn't get a larger wire in the lower arch for 2 visits...now, my upper arch is wider than the lower. He put in a large wire on the lower last time and left a smaller wire on the upper arch. He says if the lower doesn't expand enough, he'll pull in the uppers a bit. Does this sound legit? I sure don't want to loose width in the smile. I appreciate any feedback...I guess you can tell I'm a bit worried and discouraged.

Hey, Debbra

I can't really help you as I haven't gone through the elastics phase yet but I would tell you just to be patient - often our teeth have to get worse before they get better so give them I try. I really hope your double elastics work and you don't need any extra appliance...

Your wire differences sound lagit to me. My ortho started matching the upper and lower wires in the second half of my treatment. Basically they're moving your teeth so they can move things back if needed. Any reduction in the upper arch would be by mm's and wouldn't be noticable.

Be patient, wear your elastics as prescribed and hang in there!!