Last Thursday I had an appointment to check my progress, since I had emailed the office with some questions about the progress I should be seeing. The rectangular wire I had should have been tipping my teeth out a little, but it felt like they were tipping in, I think because the torque of the brackets is incorrect.
To orthodontist had the assistant take out my archwire and then he looked at my teeth and brackets, and even looked at loose high torque and low torque brackets to try to compare them. He didn't comment on my progress, and said he still thinks I have the correct high torque brackets on .
Even with that, he decided to have the assistant place a "SET" wire, which is a rectangular wire that has a twist in it to put torque on the incisors separate/in addition to what the bracket slot will do by itself. The assistant had to use some force to get the wire into the brackets and close the doors.
I mentioned that my left first bicuspid was hitting early when I bite down. The ortho put a bend in the wire just before that tooth to raise it up a little to help with that. I think it was hitting because the bicuspid had tipped out a little. That bend hasn't stopped that tooth from hitting early yet, but it did make it extra sore for a couple days, which in a way was even worse, since I've still been occasionally hitting it unexpectedly! The extra soreness is gone now, but that tooth still hits early, so I've been trying to be careful when chewing.
The assistant didn't ask me anything about changing the colored ligatures (that are around the base of the brackets, behind the wire) and she didn't remove the blue I already had. This is fine with me, since they kept my already scheduled appointment in four weeks (normally eight weeks apart), and I had already been thinking about getting colors at my next couple appointments that coordinate with what would be happening between those appointments, and changing the timing of appointments would mean I'd have to rethink that.
After the orthodontist had left and the assistant had placed the wire and closed all the bracket doors, the assistant and I looked at the loose high- and low-torque brackets and, because I had brought my camera with a lens and extension tube so I can take close-up photos, I took photos of the loose brackets for the sake of comparison. I remained convinced I have the wrong brackets on. The assistant said something about the angle that the doors are at when open, but she also said wasn't crazy for thinking I was seeing what I am seeing. She said she thinks I have the correct brackets, too, but it sounded like she was looking at how the wire sat in the bracket slot, rather than the shape of the bracket itself. She also said that she thinks the SET wire will take care of it. I tried to explain what I was looking at, but I'm not sure how well I did.
The assistant did say she would talk to the ortho about and put in my notes the idea of replacing the four incisor brackets when they remove the other brackets to place the Carriere appliance, as something to help me feel reassured and not worry about it during the rest of my treatment.
A later day, looking at the photos I took of the loose brackets and photos of my braces, I think I know what happened. I had been confused because the slots looked like low-torque brackets, but the day I got them on they had the red dots on them that looking online (and the assistant said at my most recent appointment) means they are high-torque. I noticed the loose brackets also had a blue dot off to one side on the upper part of the face of the bracket. Looking up the manufacturer's catalog for Damon braces, that indicates that the bracket is for an upper central incisor. In the first photo of my braces, there is only the red high-torque dot on my central incisor brackets, and the red dot and an orange dot on the lower part of the face of the brackets on my lateral incisors. I'm confident this orange dot means lower lateral incisor. The brackets on my incisors are for lower incisors, not upper. They are high-torque, but on the wrong arch they then roughly match low-torque upper brackets. An assistant or someone must have grabbed lower brackets instead of upper brackets when I got my braces on. (The brackets on my canines and bicuspids appear to have had the correct, upper arch dots, so those are fine.)
I think the SET wire will roughly just cancel out the incorrect torque of the brackets, so I'm not expecting as much tipping as my ortho is probably expecting. I'm not sure if or how to bring up the issue for a third time, but I did put a few photos on my phone so I can clearly show what I'm talking about if/when I do try to explain it again. It feels weird that the ortho has looked at it a couple times and not seen what I'm seeing, though he's only looked with naked eye and the differences between the brackets are really small, physically.
Other things to note:
I've seen at least one or two other adult patients at each appointment I've had so far. At this one, there was a woman a few chairs down who, from what I overheard, was getting invisalign/aligner attachments removed and would be getting retainers soon (didn't want to look over and stare). Sounded like she was asking if she could keep wearing her last trays until she got her retainers, even though the attachments would be gone.
A few days out from the appointment now, and my teeth have not been too sore. Definitely a lot less than the first week or so with the first rectangular wire.
Speaking of, the new wire catches the light more and is more shiny than the previous one. The previous wire (one of the "Damon Ultima" wires) was "rectangular", but it was flat on the top and bottom and rounded on the front and back. In addition, it seemed to have a finish that was less shiny (or maybe they are different materials?). This new one is plain rectangular in shape, so the front is flat, and it's noticeably shinier. The wire feels sharper to my tongue, probably because of the more square edges. I like how this wire is shinier, so I'm wondering how much I'll have those Damon Ultima wires and how much I'll have normal rectangular wire.
Next appointment is in about four weeks, and they'll check my progress from getting this new wire.
To orthodontist had the assistant take out my archwire and then he looked at my teeth and brackets, and even looked at loose high torque and low torque brackets to try to compare them. He didn't comment on my progress, and said he still thinks I have the correct high torque brackets on .
Even with that, he decided to have the assistant place a "SET" wire, which is a rectangular wire that has a twist in it to put torque on the incisors separate/in addition to what the bracket slot will do by itself. The assistant had to use some force to get the wire into the brackets and close the doors.
I mentioned that my left first bicuspid was hitting early when I bite down. The ortho put a bend in the wire just before that tooth to raise it up a little to help with that. I think it was hitting because the bicuspid had tipped out a little. That bend hasn't stopped that tooth from hitting early yet, but it did make it extra sore for a couple days, which in a way was even worse, since I've still been occasionally hitting it unexpectedly! The extra soreness is gone now, but that tooth still hits early, so I've been trying to be careful when chewing.
The assistant didn't ask me anything about changing the colored ligatures (that are around the base of the brackets, behind the wire) and she didn't remove the blue I already had. This is fine with me, since they kept my already scheduled appointment in four weeks (normally eight weeks apart), and I had already been thinking about getting colors at my next couple appointments that coordinate with what would be happening between those appointments, and changing the timing of appointments would mean I'd have to rethink that.
After the orthodontist had left and the assistant had placed the wire and closed all the bracket doors, the assistant and I looked at the loose high- and low-torque brackets and, because I had brought my camera with a lens and extension tube so I can take close-up photos, I took photos of the loose brackets for the sake of comparison. I remained convinced I have the wrong brackets on. The assistant said something about the angle that the doors are at when open, but she also said wasn't crazy for thinking I was seeing what I am seeing. She said she thinks I have the correct brackets, too, but it sounded like she was looking at how the wire sat in the bracket slot, rather than the shape of the bracket itself. She also said that she thinks the SET wire will take care of it. I tried to explain what I was looking at, but I'm not sure how well I did.
The assistant did say she would talk to the ortho about and put in my notes the idea of replacing the four incisor brackets when they remove the other brackets to place the Carriere appliance, as something to help me feel reassured and not worry about it during the rest of my treatment.
A later day, looking at the photos I took of the loose brackets and photos of my braces, I think I know what happened. I had been confused because the slots looked like low-torque brackets, but the day I got them on they had the red dots on them that looking online (and the assistant said at my most recent appointment) means they are high-torque. I noticed the loose brackets also had a blue dot off to one side on the upper part of the face of the bracket. Looking up the manufacturer's catalog for Damon braces, that indicates that the bracket is for an upper central incisor. In the first photo of my braces, there is only the red high-torque dot on my central incisor brackets, and the red dot and an orange dot on the lower part of the face of the brackets on my lateral incisors. I'm confident this orange dot means lower lateral incisor. The brackets on my incisors are for lower incisors, not upper. They are high-torque, but on the wrong arch they then roughly match low-torque upper brackets. An assistant or someone must have grabbed lower brackets instead of upper brackets when I got my braces on. (The brackets on my canines and bicuspids appear to have had the correct, upper arch dots, so those are fine.)
I think the SET wire will roughly just cancel out the incorrect torque of the brackets, so I'm not expecting as much tipping as my ortho is probably expecting. I'm not sure if or how to bring up the issue for a third time, but I did put a few photos on my phone so I can clearly show what I'm talking about if/when I do try to explain it again. It feels weird that the ortho has looked at it a couple times and not seen what I'm seeing, though he's only looked with naked eye and the differences between the brackets are really small, physically.
Other things to note:
I've seen at least one or two other adult patients at each appointment I've had so far. At this one, there was a woman a few chairs down who, from what I overheard, was getting invisalign/aligner attachments removed and would be getting retainers soon (didn't want to look over and stare). Sounded like she was asking if she could keep wearing her last trays until she got her retainers, even though the attachments would be gone.
A few days out from the appointment now, and my teeth have not been too sore. Definitely a lot less than the first week or so with the first rectangular wire.
Speaking of, the new wire catches the light more and is more shiny than the previous one. The previous wire (one of the "Damon Ultima" wires) was "rectangular", but it was flat on the top and bottom and rounded on the front and back. In addition, it seemed to have a finish that was less shiny (or maybe they are different materials?). This new one is plain rectangular in shape, so the front is flat, and it's noticeably shinier. The wire feels sharper to my tongue, probably because of the more square edges. I like how this wire is shinier, so I'm wondering how much I'll have those Damon Ultima wires and how much I'll have normal rectangular wire.
Next appointment is in about four weeks, and they'll check my progress from getting this new wire.
