Metal Mouth Message Board

I am 11 months into my treatm., and at my last appt. my ortho told me to come back in 2 weeks for a new set of Xrays and pics. He said that he needs to compare them with my initial ones.
Any of you experienced anything like that? If yes, how soon or how late in your treatment?
He told me not to wear my elastics anymore, an he makes small bends in the archwire...I am getting excited thinking that I might be only a few months away from the finish.

felicia wrote:I am 11 months into my treatm., and at my last appt. my ortho told me to come back in 2 weeks for a new set of Xrays and pics. He said that he needs to compare them with my initial ones.
Any of you experienced anything like that? If yes, how soon or how late in your treatment?
He told me not to wear my elastics anymore, an he makes small bends in the archwire...I am getting excited thinking that I might be only a few months away from the finish.

I don't think you get them during your treatment, normally.. but I had to get them for something else.

Do you mind my asking what the small bends in the wire are for?

I had x-rays 10 months or so in.
I am at 21 months now and still a few months to go for sure.
I don't know why he did the x-rays, never asked. I only guess it was just to get a more informed looked at my progression to see if any changes to the plan need to be made.

And I had bends in my wire for leveling.

I am 12 months into braces, and I had x-rays done at a few weeks ago because my ortho wanted to see if my roots were parallel. I am almost done treatment (my original estimate was 12-18 months).

I think around 10 months into my treatment I got the xray done. They told me they do it to check the roots to make sure it wasn't touching. They had to readjust my brackets at my next adjustment after the xray to fix them.

I haven't had any during treatment and I don't think I will.

I had them every 6-8 months, to check root position. Maybe 5 all together, including at beginning and end of treatment.

My response was about X-rays. Pics were only at beginning and end.

VA5 wrote:

Do you mind my asking what the small bends in the wire are for?

He made bends to adjust the height of a lower incisor and also a lower first premolar. He said that they were not as tall as my other teeth.

I will be having xrays at my next app in 8 weeks time. My ortho wants to see how my roots are now positioned. That will be 5 1/2 months into treatment

I had another panordex done after I had been in brackets for a year, maybe at the thirteenth month mark or so. No bite wings though.

my ortho didnt mention anything about this so far..

I had x-rays done at 5 months to check the roots to see if he had to make any adjustments to get the teeth positioned properly. I am now at 6 months and he said he wants to take another x-ray on my next visit. I should be done at 10 months.

xrays are needed to monitor root resorption. Root resorption - if left unchecked, can cause tooth loss.

X-rays mid-treatment are used for many reasons including:

-checking for resorption
-checking for root parallelism
-checking for unerupted teeth
-routine monitoring of the bone and structure of the jaws

Photos are a legal record of treatment. Very few doctors taking photos at every appointment, though there are some that do, particularly if they lecture or present at meetings and schools. Otherwise, it is not uncommon to only have one set of photos taken at the end of treatment.