Today I had my first tightening appointment. My understanding of the braces process was sooo off, and mind you I ask them like 20 questions at every visit. So if I your trusted ortho guinea pig also affectionately known as your source; misunderstood how braces are tightened I can only imagine the ideas that you have swimming in your pretty little head. Lets get some facts straightened out shall we?
1. Little rubber bands are put around each brace to hold the wire to the braces & tooth. (About a week ago a circular piece of plastic came flying out of my mouth! I had no idea what it was, because I didn’t know I had rubber bands in my mouth. At the first appointment, I asked about rubber bands but the dental assistant said that rubber bands come later in treatment. I thought it was undigested food or something, gross & silly I know).
2. Each month the rubber bands are replaced, I had clear ones, but they get stained and yellowish.
3. The tightening process is not done by tightening the wire like I erroneously thought, but by inserting a plastic string around the top two teeth and bottom four teeth (it varies) wrapping it around in a figure eight motion (imagine lassoing a horse) and tying it tight. It is such a weird feeling to have your teeth being pulled together. I can’t really explain it.
4. I never realized that it was the different color rubber bands that little kids had in their mouth. I’m super late with that I know lol. So next month you’re in store for a nice surprise, because I am going to have fun with these bad boys in my mouth. Stay tuned…
EDITED: So I now know that I am too old to have colored bands :( I had the ortho assistant put colored bands on two of the brackets, and I looked a mess. So clear bands for me.
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