Metal Mouth Message Board

Generally speaking, how do ortho's rotate teeth? What tools/techniques are used to get the tooth rotated to its proper position?

And do you need to go the tooth aligned first, before you rotate it?

My ortho used a powerchain to rotate one of my premolars, which wasn't aligned at the time.

Tooth rotation can start with just Elastic Ligatures on the wire.



Powerchains can also be used to rotate and ligature placement can be used (Lig on only one half of the bracket).

In addition to powerchains (attached horizontally to the archwire), and elastics (attached in many, many different configurations to brackets), your orthodontist may also crimp your archwire to rotate a tooth. (I'm not sure what the criteria is for using elastics and/or powerchains versus crimping the archwire - my orthodontist has used all three different techniques to rotate the same tooth....maybe they just keep trying different ones until one works?) Hope this helps.

I see now, thanks for the replies. I was under the impression that power chains were strictly for closing gaps...I guess I learn something new everyday ha.

Because my teeth are so freaking stubborn, my ortho tried

Springs
Power chains
and finally, had a rubberband from the back of the tooth to the front of the tooth on the top....really weird feeling at first....

I had a really badly rotated tooth. My ortho used a button for a couple of months and then moved to a regular bracket. It turned around first and then moved into place.