Metal Brace

When a component in the metal brace you wear gets damaged or flawed, the brace cannot exert enough pressure to move the teeth to their aligned position. Then your orthodontic treatment will become less effective. Meanwhile, the damaged components of a brace will cause aggravations like abrasions, soreness inside the mouth.

Biting non-edibles and even hard food items, strong blow on the mouth, poor oral habits like vigorous brushing, using toothpicks are the common reasons for dental brace damages.

When your teeth brace damage, you should fix it in a dental clinic. If you cannot contact your Dentist immediately, then you should fix yourself as a temporary solution. In this post, our Orthodontists have shared some common braces problems and tips to resolve them.

1) Loose Ligature

The archwire is attached to the brackets adhered to the teeth with the help of an elastic or rubber tier called ligature. It becomes loose over a period or comes off when you meet a hit on your mouth.

Sterile tweezers, Pencil erasers are the appropriate tools to rectify this problem.

  • When the ligature becomes loose or damaged, you can put it on its place over the bracket with sterile tweezers.
  • If the ligature does not fix as well as earlier, then remove it with the help of sterile tweezers.

We recommend removing the ligature to avoid annoyance but a damaged or missing ligature bond should be fixed immediately. Otherwise, it is followed by ligatures in the other teeth.

2) Loose or Floating Brackets

Brackets are fixed on the centre of each tooth and hold the archwire. When a bracket becomes loose or dislodged but still holds the wire, it rotates and moves frequently. If this problem persists, the excluded bracket weakens the other brackets also. It is followed by difficulties like mouth soreness and aching pain in the teeth.

Until the bracket is reattached, use tweezers to slide the bracket. This prevents the bracket from dislocation for quite some time.

3) Broken Archwire

When there is a slit or break in the archwire, it protrudes and the chances are higher for injure the soft oral tissues. It makes wounds in cheeks, lips and even gums which accelerate the risk of infection. Hence you should rectify this problem by cutting or flatten the broken wire.

Use a nail cutter or nail clipper to cut down the protruding wire.

Otherwise, apply a piece of wax or mount a cotton ball over the protruded wire and soften its edges.

4) Bent wire

The archwire becomes bend when you apply too much pressure over the teeth with metal braces. If you had Invisalign or other braces, the excessive pressure would have broken the appliance. The bent wire is followed by problems like loose and protruding wires.

It is quite hard to fix bent archwire yourself. We suggest visiting your dental braces doctor immediately.

Bottom Line

When the teeth begin to shift to their positions in the jaw bone, the brace becomes loose. It mandates the braces wearers to adjust the archwire at regular intervals. In contrast, fixing the damaged wire or brace is not a usual thing.

You should take care of the orthodontic appliance with proper oral hygiene actions recommended by your Dentist. Meanwhile, maintain a dental braces-friendly diet and wear sports guards to avert the dental brace damages.