A few notes after a week of the Carriere:

The upper bars of the Carriere are really comfortable themselves. They are really smooth, and cause no irritation at all.

The LLHA doesn't cause any lisp, and it didn't take too long to get pretty used to. Sometimes I can kinda forget it's there and not notice it. However, food gets stuck between it and my teeth really easily, and it's really hard to get it out sometimes.

I can already see small gaps that have opened up in front of my upper canines. They are only about the width of a sheet of paper, but it makes me curious to see how big it gets by my next appointment, and by the time I get the Carriere removed (if my upper incisors don't move at all, which I would guess they will some, the gap on the right will have to get to be as wide as half a tooth in order for that side to get to a class 1 bite).


Also, this is from a few weeks back but forgot to mention it and it's kind of funny. This is about when I got the brackets removed from my canines and first premolars (the week before I got the Carriere), and so I just had the four brackets on my upper incisors and nothing else. Later that night, my wife said that when I got home she could tell something looked different but wasn't sure what. She did recall that I was supposed to get more stuff added at some point, so she just figured the top braces were added. Yeah, she tends not to notice small details. And, I suppose, it's verification that she doesn't secretly have any sort of interest in braces (though I was basically already 99.99% sure of that.)

One question about the Carriere. How is it different from regular elastics connected to brackets? It seems the same to me, and as you said, it isn’t the most widespread used appliance.

At my consultation, they said it was the “most efficient” way to get the movement we want, and didn’t really go into detail beyond that.

From what I’ve looked up online, the results the Carriere gets isn’t really much different different than elastics with braces. There are some small differences, but I didn’t fully understand what I read of those differences. I did find something that said that the Carriere tends to correct class 2 to class 1 more quickly than elastics with braces, but then the time in braces after the Carriere makes total treatment take a little bit longer (less time just in braces after having the Carriere, but Carriere + braces is longer than treatment that is braces and elastics).

From what I’ve seen online, it seems like the protocol for the Carriere uses higher-force elastics than normally used for class 2 elastics with braces. I don’t know know if that’s because the Carriere is marketed around taking less time than braces and they want to back that up and so they use stronger elastics than ideal, or if it’s because the archwire for full braces isn’t stiff enough when using those strength elastics but they’re still safe/healthy/etc to use. I’ve seen comments from an ortho on the braces subreddit whose against the Carriere because he says the forces of the elastics are too high. That’s just one opinion, though, and I’m reassured by the fact that the best orthodontist in my city uses the Carriere on some patients. (I haven’t worked up to those strongest elastics yet; I’m curious how they’ll feel.)

From my personal experience with braces and the Carriere, hygiene is easier with the Carriere than with braces, so the shorter time in full braces should be advantageous for the health of the patient’s teeth. The marketing for the Carriere doesn’t touch on that, but fewer things glued to fewer teeth will be good for preventing cavities and such. The marketing more plays up the angle that you can correct the bite “before braces”. Which I feel like is a half-truth. People will be able to see it and the elastics (if it’s bonded to the canines), but it will be a lot more discreet than brackets across all your front teeth.

So sorta faster than just braces, but not depending on how you measure. More discreet than full braces. And from what I can tell more hygienic than full braces.

Hi I’m new to this site and this is my first post. In 48 hours I will be getting my upper and lower fixed metal braces fitted again. It’s a long story but I recently got my money back for my first treatment. Looking forward to wearing braces again but I’m also very anxious about what other people will say. I think I will enjoy it more 2nd time round and I have already ordered some other items to have some fun with. I wanted to get molar bands in the hope that they had headgear tubes but the Ortho didn’t want to put bands. I will try face masks and j hooks and might need some advice or suggestions to try some other things. I will go for silver ligatures on the first fitting but might get a bit more adventurous at the first adjustment.

(Wrong topic)