Metal Mouth Message Board

As an easter gift, my friend gave me a ton of plackers orthopicks. However, they don't seem to fit in between most of my brackets. The picks at the bottom are helpful (I use the plastic one as a palatal sweep for my expander and the rubber one as an interdental brush) but other than that, they don't seem to work very well. Are other brands of flossers better?

I tried to continue using them on my upper teeth, as I have more room in between them there and did not want to waste the pack, but it broke off a bracket!

I haven't used these, but the plastic looks too thick to use with braces!
If I got a bunch of these, I would probably save them until my braces came off. They aren't going to expire, so you don't have to feel bad for not using them.
Especially since you broke a bracket, I think it would be a good idea to stop using them unless you are cleaning your expander.

I hope this helps

I actually like my Plackers!! It was taking me a good 45 minutes to completely floss with the threader floss and it would always fray on my brackets and get stuck but it takes me like 5 minutes with the plackers.

I find that if you tilt the thicker side of the orthopick back towards your pallet, you can slide the flat side under the arch wire better... then re-angle it and repeat

I bought a few floss threaders and it only takes me about 7-10 minutes to floss, plus I get to use whichever floss I like. If a few spaces open up where I can be sure the placker will fit without popping anything off, I'll be sure to try that! In the mean time, I'm a bit too scared to risk it.

Beware!!!! I popped off a bracket using my plackers flosser this week. To be fair, it was on a crown so the bond was probably weaker than usual, but they definitely put a lot of pressure on the archwire when you push them up there.

I've been using these and they work really well on all my front upper teeth but if you have tight spaces, they tend to shred on me. I can't do my back molars with these either. I still have to use a threader and some glide floss for that. I ordered some of the flossfish from dentakit yesterday. It works similar to the othopicks but you use your regular floss with it. You substitute the flossfish for the threader and that goes under your archwire. There are youtube videos on it and I think this might do the trick for me. I think if my teeth weren't so tight, the orthopicks would work better. I will still use them on my front upper teeth.

I love the orthopicks! My orthodontist assistant recommended them and they work great! I only have one tight space where I use a floss threader.

Now that my teeth are starting to move and have more space, I am really liking the othopicks. It is so much easier to floss now. I would suggest if you are shredding the floss because your teeth are tight, get some glide floss with a threader for those until you have more space and then try the orthopicks again. You will love them at that point. I can floss so much faster now and I am not even to my first adjustment yet. I am glad I bought them now.

Love them!

Hate these. They could only get a limited area, and only some of the teeth.

Better off using the threaders and tying one end of the floss onto it. It gets easier over time mostly because as your teeth straighten, you will know the joys of flossing with straight teeth!! Mine are coming off in the next two months and at this point, I can floss my whole mouth in 2 minutes - just got my teeth cleaned and my hygienist didn't even do any manual de-calcification! FYI - between Sonicare, water-pik every other day and flossing with threaders, I've somehow made it through this onerous journey in one piece!!

I used the orthopicks throughout the time I had braces, and I never had any issues with flossing or breaking off brackets. This product was a godsend and was the main way I flossed. Now that my braces are off, I continue to use these and love them!

I use these and also super floss if the brackets are too close together for them to fit. You have to be careful. If you try to use it at the wrong angle you will press against the arch wire and risk breaking a bracket. As long as you are being careful and not going too fast, they work great. It saves a bunch of time compared to just using super floss.

Now that I have finally gained spaces between my teeth and my wires straightened out, I can use plackers and flossing has become not as tedious as with threader floss. I prefer plackers over oral b glide threader floss, and the sturdyfloss...don't even waste your money. The threader is flimsy.

metalliKa wrote:Now that I have finally gained spaces between my teeth and my wires straightened out, I can use plackers and flossing has become not as tedious as with threader floss. I prefer plackers over oral b glide threader floss, and the sturdyfloss...don't even waste your money. The threader is flimsy.

Agreed. Once my wire straightened out, it was much easier to use the plackers. I still have some tight spots, so use threader floss there.