You’re welcome! I’m glad you found it useful! 👍

Diagnosis and treatment planning is a very complex process that depends on many factors. As a result, it’s impossible to say which of those options is “best”. The best option for treating one person’s overheat might be elastics, for another person it might be extractions, and for a third person it might be surgical repositioning of the maxilla and/or mandible. I would recommend having consultations with several orthodontists and go with the doctor and option that seems like it makes the most sense for you. I hope that helps.

1- Ligating the canine-canine segment together while wearing Class 2 elastics prevents spaces from opening between those anterior teeth due to the elastic pulling the canines distally. 2- As a general rule, I only have the patient wear elastic after they have progressed to .017x.025 NiTi wires or larger. Wearing elastics on smaller NiTi wires can cause bowing of the arch (called the roller coaster effect) because the force of the elastic is greater than the rigidity of the archwire . Sometimes I will have patients wear elastic on wire smaller than .017x.025 NiTi but it is very rare.

There’s a lot that of information that needs to be considered when making that decision for an individual so it’s probably best to just do what your orthodontist says to do. However, in general, it’s fine to wear heavy Class II elastics as long as your archwire is strong enough to support them. I hope that helps! 👍

Elastics are worn after leveling and aligning, once you’re in a wire that’s stiff enough to withstand the pulling force of the elastics without bowing. In our office that’s a .017”x.025” NiTi wire or larger. Elastics should only be worn with something in place to stabilize the arch shape and link all the teeth together as a unit, such as full braces or clear aligner trays (like Invisalign or another brand of clear aligners). If you wore elastics without the teeth being linked together it would pull only on the teeth that the elastics were hooked to and they would move in an uncontrolled way, causing them to super erupt and rotate and spaces would open up, etc. Not the results that most people are looking for. 😏

My midline is off too

Every case is different but, generally speaking, the braces just move the teeth without affecting very much the underlying skeletal structure, which would affect how your face looks. If they have you doing anything that would move the facial bones (palate expander, orthognathic surgery, etc) that might change how your face looks but braces alone shouldn’t affect the face much.

​@@likeabossproductions1254 I'm using elastics on the right side... Upper arch: canine and the 2 pre molars hooked to 3 little hooks that go inside the lower arch (on the 2 pre molars and 1 molar). Does elastics change facial structure?

The elastics you describe are called cross-arch elastics and will tip the posterior teeth but not move the underlying bone so they shouldn’t affect the appearance of your face.

@@likeabossproductions1254Do class 2 elastics retract the maxilla? Or do they only move the teeths?

The patient should continue to wear elastics 24 hrs per day until their occlusion is Class I. Often the type of elastics they need to wear will change as their occlusion changes and shifts as a result of the elastic wear.

Each individual elastic lasts (stays stretchy) for several hours so I ask patients to change them at meal times. As far as how long long a person will need to wear the elastics, it depends on how much correction needs to be made and how many hours of each day the person actually wears the elastics. Some people are done in two months. Others never make the correction because they won’t wear their elastics consistently. I usually tell people that if they wear the elastics exactly like I ask them to, they should be done with the elastics within 6 months.

Each manufacturer has different names for their elastics, but the real difference between elastics is the diameter size of the elastic (1/4”, 3/16”, etc) and the force of the elastic (2 oz, 4 oz, etc). For example, we mostly use Gorilla elastics made by American Orthodontics for our patients in braces. They are a 3/16” (4.8 mm), 4.5 ounce elastic. The most important thing is that the patient wears the elastics consistently, just how you ask them to.

@@likeabossproductions1254 i see , so the 1/4 ones has a bigger pulling force than the 3/16 ones ?

@@mery1317 The smaller the diameter and the greater the oz’s, the greater the force that the elastic pulls with.

@@likeabossproductions1254 i really appreciate you taking the time to reply and share your knowledge thank you

Why do i have c2 on my right and c3 on my left? I’m missing one mollar on my left and my bottom teeth line is not in center

There wasn’t a wire in the model but a real patient would have a wire in place for the upper and lower braces.

@@likeabossproductions1254 thank you very much for this precious information

It depends on several factors but, generally speaking, it usually takes several months of 24/7 elastic wear to completely correct the bite. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but it’s usually not a 2 weeks kind of thing.