Reverse curve wire! OH My!

[kids041]

I got a reverse curve wire yesterday. I have been waiting for this wire since my braces went on ... Yah!!! BUT... OH MY!! my teeth are hurting this morning!!
I guess it is "careful what you wish for"!!

[28monthjourney]

Tooth pain means progress! Are you getting the wire for an overbite?

[MrsCharisma]

That was the WORST part of my entire experience. THAT was the only time I wanted to rip my braces out; when I got the reverse curve wire!!! It'll settle down, of course, but still. You have my sympathy!

[kids041]

That was the WORST part of my entire experience. THAT was the only time I wanted to rip my braces out; when I got the reverse curve wire!!! It'll settle down, of course, but still. You have my sympathy!

Thanks! You did warn me....
I have just stuck to soft food today. Hopefully it will calm down by this weekend. I know, no pain, no gain...
I have the reverse curve wire to correct a deep Curve of Spee in my lower arch. I have a deep bite, which is why I have braces in the first place.

[MrsCharisma]

That was the WORST part of my entire experience. THAT was the only time I wanted to rip my braces out; when I got the reverse curve wire!!! It'll settle down, of course, but still. You have my sympathy!

Thanks! You did warn me....
I have just stuck to soft food today. Hopefully it will calm down by this weekend. I know, no pain, no gain...
I have the reverse curve wire to correct a deep Curve of Spee in my lower arch. I have a deep bite, which is why I have braces in the first place.

I am totally not in the camp of people who know everything about their treatment...but I do remember being told I have a "deep bite" and it was about 60%. But I have no clue what that means.

[NeilH]

That was the WORST part of my entire experience. THAT was the only time I wanted to rip my braces out; when I got the reverse curve wire!!! It'll settle down, of course, but still. You have my sympathy!

Thanks! You did warn me....
I have just stuck to soft food today. Hopefully it will calm down by this weekend. I know, no pain, no gain...
I have the reverse curve wire to correct a deep Curve of Spee in my lower arch. I have a deep bite, which is why I have braces in the first place.

Hi, could you tell me what a reverse curve wire is? My front bottom teeth have curved upwards as there hasn't been room for them to rotate so guess this is what you are talking about?

[kids041]

That was the WORST part of my entire experience. THAT was the only time I wanted to rip my braces out; when I got the reverse curve wire!!! It'll settle down, of course, but still. You have my sympathy!

Thanks! You did warn me....
I have just stuck to soft food today. Hopefully it will calm down by this weekend. I know, no pain, no gain...
I have the reverse curve wire to correct a deep Curve of Spee in my lower arch. I have a deep bite, which is why I have braces in the first place.

Hi, could you tell me what a reverse curve wire is? My front bottom teeth have curved upwards as there hasn't been room for them to rotate so guess this is what you are talking about?

Sure! I got this explanation from another post here on Archwired..... "This type of archwire opens up the bite by extruding the posterior teeth and intruding the anterior teeth thus reducing the curve of Spee. In an ideal occlusion, the mandibular curve of Spee is concave whereas the maxillary curve is convex."

[lorsa]

kids041, thanks so very much for the explanation and picture! I just got that exact wire put in my lower arch this morning (well, it looked like that exact wire!). It makes sense, because I too have a deep bite. I've worn box elastics (in the shape of a box around upper and lower 5,6,7''s) for the past few months, and they've done a pretty good job of extruding my molars, but they still don't meet. I'm hoping this new wire fixes that!

This is why I love Metal Mouth Forum - someone here ALWAYS has the answer to my question!

[djspeece]

That just sounds painful. Hope you are feeling better soon!

[ItsFreyja]

Oh, I hate to hear that this wire hurts. I think I'll be getting one eventually as my upper incisors need to be intruded big-time. Hope everyone's teeth feel better soon.

[lorsa]

Oh, I hate to hear that this wire hurts. I think I'll be getting one eventually as my upper incisors need to be intruded big-time. Hope everyone's teeth feel better soon.

Yes, it does hurt more than any other wire I've had (I'm 12 months into treatment now, with another 8-12 months expected). It hurt like heck for the first 3 days, but now the pain is finally starting to subside. I'm happy though, because it means I'm finally into the "heavy lifting" phase, to get my lower molars to move up and out! And I think my orthodontist expects it will do the job fairly quickly, because he told me to come back in 6 weeks when I normally only see him every 8. So now I keep checking my teeth every morning to see if they have lifted overnight, LOL!

[deathorglory]

I got this wire put in with "steps" in it (literally what it sounds like...some teeth were to be pulled higher than others) prior to my surgery. I couldn't eat for about a week and a half! On the other hand, my teeth moved pretty quickly and I was cleared for surgery a bit earlier than scheduled It WAS pain to deal with at the time, though...

[ItsFreyja]

I'm glad to hear it's feeling better, lorsa. Looking forward to a good progress report in 6 weeks.

[lorsa]

OK, here's my 6-week progress report:

This reverse curve wire worked so well, my Ortho removed it today after just 6 weeks of wear!

AND HE ALSO REMOVED THE BITE TURBOS FROM MY FRONT TEETH!! (can you tell I'm happy?)

As I mentioned previously, during the first few days of wearing the reverse curve wire I could really feel the upward pressure in my lower molars, but then I got used to it and didn't notice it anymore.

When the wire was first installed, my bite was still so deep that the first point of contact between my upper and lower arches was when my front lower teeth hit the bite turbos that were glued to the backs of my front upper teeth.

After just 2 weeks with the reverse curve wire, there was visible progress. I still hit mainly on the turbos, but my lower right molars had lifted to the point where I could "tap" the corner of one upper and one lower molar together.

At 4 weeks, I was also making that "tapping" contact on the left side. When I closed my mouth, I now had 3-point contact (left, right and front). After having gone through a year of not being able to touch any molars, that was a weird feeling! (Even freakier: with 3 points of contact now, when I hum at just the right frequency, I can get my wires vibrating through my whole mouth -- oooh, that tickles! )

At 5 weeks, the lower molars on my right side had extruded to the point where I could actually chew food! For the first time in 12 months!! Oh the joy! And the contact continued to improve on the left side, but now it's really obvious that my lower arch is not as wide as my upper arch because my left upper molars "overhang" the corresponding lower ones. So if I want to chew on that side I have to swing my jaw over to the left to get them to line up.

Today is the 6 week anniversary of getting the wire, and my Ortho has determined I no longer need it. There are still some adjustments left to do to make some individual teeth meet, but it can be done with wire and elastics. So today he moved me into the final, strongest wires. And he took the turbos off! I can now pronounce the letter "S" again! No more lisp! I have been hissing out loud to myself for the last two hours, LOL!

YAY! I'm so happy! I know I still have several months to go, because my lower arch still needs to be widened, but I'm thrilled with the progress. In my rough estimate, this wire extruded my lower molars by approximately 4 millimetres (or 1/8 of an inch). What a difference! My curve of spee is pretty much level now, rather than declining towards the back.

So as far as I'm concerned, it's definitely two thumbs up for the reverse curve wire!

[ItsFreyja]

Awesome report! So glad to hear it worked so quickly!!