Metal Mouth Message Board

All of my rotations are out now, and my ortho is correcting my midline. I have just started with rubberbands in my 8th month of treatment.

Just wondering how everyone's else progression went and when you started wearing bands?

Yea, I had my first at like 10 months, again at 15 and again at 22. I only had to wear them those 6 weeks only, I was diligent! lol

good luck!

argh you guys know alot about ur treatment, my ortho hardly says hi

I just started wearing rubberbands yesterday (10months into tx). I'm convinced I'll never eat solid food again!

I got my braces 3 weeks ago and I was told by my ortho that I'd need rubber bands eventually.

What are they for, anyway? And do they hurt?

I first got elastics during my second month in braces, to change the tilt of my front bottom teeth, and then again about two month later on my top teeth to keep some of my teeth from moving into some gaps that I needed for surgery.

Now that I'm a few weeks post surgery, I currently have 8 elastics in my mouth - 4 on each side. I have two boxes on each side, both held with 2 elastics. And the elastics are heavy weight so I can't open my mouth at all when I am wearing them. I'm allowed to take them out to eat.

I will probably have elastics for several more months as my orthodontist tweaks my bite, but hopefully, they won't be as heavy as the ones I have now, and hopefully, I won't need as many!

Not too weird. I got elastics 6 months in to my treatment. They told me I would have to wear them until I got the braces off. It seemed like every appt after that they added another elastic. I wear 4 now. The braces are fine. The elastics are annoying!

In my second month I was given medium strength elastics to wear a triaangle on each side; the top of the triangle being my upper canine, and the bottom points being my lower canines and banded molars.

I kept that arrangement until my fourth month when in adiition to the above, my ortho added a heavy elastic on the upper left from my canine to my banded molar.

I kept that arrangement until month six, at which time I kept the same arrangement, though my ortho upped the medium strength on the triangles to the same heavy elastic I was wearng on the upper left.

Now I'm in month seven, and I continue on with this set.

When will it end??

I got Medium Elastics onthe very first day that I got Braces

I got super heavy elastics on my fourth adjustment.

I didn't start with elastics until well over a year into my treatment.