Joseph thompson 1 comment during the course of orthodontic treatment a patient with braces may have to wear elastic rubber bands to help with the correction of their malocclusion.
When do you get elastic bands for your braces.
Small elastics fix the braces wire to the brackets on teeth and longer bands are sometimes used to adjust the position of the jaw and the bite between the upper and lower teeth.
There are actually a couple different types of elastics.
But our patients can start using rubber bands for their braces as soon as one month into treatment or as late as 12 months into treatment.
If you have braces your orthodontist might give you small rubber bands to attach to your brackets to help move and align your teeth.
We re going to go over all of those in detail a little bit lower.
Rubber bands are applied in different ways depending on the structure of your mouth and what issue your orthodontist is trying to correct.
This type of elastics used for braces is typical called interarch elastics.
Wearing your elastics 24 7 is crucial and it does take a couple days to get used to.
Well it depends on the patient.
While they may cause some discomfort they re an important part of your overall orthodontic plan.
You should wear your elastics constantly twenty four hours a day including when you eat a snack play and sleep unless otherwise instructed taking them out only to brush floss put new.
Tips on wearing rubber bands for braces.
You should ask them first about any questions you have regarding your rubber bands.
Luckily there are several strategies you can try out to help alleviate rubber bands and braces pain.
We ve provided tips on how you can easily adjust to wearing elastics on your braces.
When you re prescribed braces and rubber bands your orthodontist should go over instructions with you.
Yes rubber band wear is vital to successful treatment so always strictly follow the instructions and regiment we give you for wearing your elastics.
What do the elastic rubber bands on braces do.
Different kinds of elastics.
Hooking new rubber bands on your braces to securely hook your elastics on your brackets use your thumb and pointer finger.
Elastic bands are often essential to orthodontic treatment.
When you get braces your orthodontist may recommend you use elastics as part of your orthodontic treatment.
Most of the time it is to correct an underbite or an overbite.
Posted on august 29 2012 september 8 2016 author dr.
Less commonly it is used to correct a cross bite.