Problem with orthodontics

milliemonster

I hope someone can help.

My 12 yr old daughter had fixed braces fitted at the end of last year, these are due to be in place for the next 2yrs. Now, she needed to attend the orthodontist for these fitting on 3 consecutive Mondays in November, the last date being 28th Nov with a follow up appt in Feb. As we live 20 miles away from the orthodontist this means a 40 mile round trip each time which meant she missed 3 mornings of school, can't be helped I accept that.

Fast forward to now and we have had nothing but continual problems with the braces and the standard of them. About a week after the final fitting at the end of November the brace came loose on on side and was hanging down. So I had to take her back to have them refitted. Another week later they became loose again, however, this was the beginning of christmas week and with work committments and everything else I couldn't get her in until the beginning of this week to have them sorted out, in the meantime one of the plates from the roof of the brace came off completely. I took her again Monday this week to have them refastened again. 24 hours later she came home from school yesterday to say that one of the wires is out completely again and I am now getting to the end of my tether.

School are not happy that we are having to take her out so often which I completely agree with, the orthodontist will only offer us an emergency appt on a Monday or a Wednesday and can offer nothing outside of school hours, but I cannot afford to be taking her out of school every week to have her braces readjusted, it's just unacceptable for her to continually miss school like this, plus the fact that all these extra 40 mile round trips are costing me a fortune in fuel!,

I'm not sure what to do about this. we have explained to the orthodontist that we're a little bit concerned that the braces seem to be breaking within a few days/week each time we have brought her back but all they do is offer an appt to bring her back in, during school time to have them sorted. they wanted us to take her again this afternoon but as she only went on Monday and missed all monday morning, I have refused the appt for today as she would miss most of the afternoon at school.

Can anyone offer any advice? She is being careful with them, the only advice they gave us when she had them fitted was not to eat anything like toffees and to start with soft food until she got used to them which she has followed. I just can't cope with having to take her every week for the next 2 years!, help!

brook2jack

The point at which braces are under the greatest stain is when they are first put on and it's then they are most likely to break/come loose. Add to this that for a child this is the point at which they have to learn to live with it and it's not surprising that alot of braces need frequent repairs at this point.

The amount of visits should decrease as things settle down. Unfortunately orthodontists are booked up weeks ahead so it is unlikely they will always be able to fit you in at convenient times particularly as others will be in the same situation.

Toothsmith

My guess would be that this is more of a problem of your daughter getting used to them.

It's hard to quantify 'being careful', and I'm sure she's trying, but it will be more what she's doing that's breaking them rather than any 'substandard' issues.

Ortho wires are just wires - pretty standard things, as are the brackets. The cement they're held on with can be 'technique sensitive' - and the thing that tends to make them fail is if moisture contaminates the surface duing the process (Which does take a bit of skill in a dark wet environment!)

But - if this happens, often the failure is immediate and as soon as you fix a wire to the bracket. If it stands up to that, then it would usually go very quickly often in the first few hours or certainly the next day.

If it hangs on for longer than that, then I wouldn't say that it was the way the brackets/wires were put on that is the problem, but what's happening in your daughter's mouth.

She might have a heavy bite - people have all sorts of different bite strengths. If that's the case, then to her, she'll feel like she's just eating normally, but she'll be overstressing things. She needs to learn to be a bit more gentle.

I'm sure she'll adapt, but you both probably need to accept that it is her problem, and work from there.

BTW - she did actually want the treatment didn't she? Sometimes you find that kids that have been pressured into treatment when they didn't really want it are the ones who repeatedly break their appliances.