teeth making a cracking sound

[FranckC]

Hi,

I had braces for 3 weeks now and I have been earing cracking sound from a molar two time this week.
My dentist sticked some kind of hard paste on an upper molar on each side of my mouth to prevent my upper teeth to hit the bottom brackets.
The cracking sound happens when I close my teeth together with some pressure (only 2 molars actually close together because of that paste...) but it doesn't do it every time. It only happen twice for now and my tooth doesn't hurt at all.
Anybody had this kind of problem? Are those sounds normal?
Just hope it's nothing serious

Thank you

[catgyrl]

With braces, your tooth ligaments loosen up so that your teeth will move into the proper position, so when you bite down on them, or push them around with your tongue (as I do occasionally), they may feel loose and make a little "cracking" sound. It's normal, so no worries. It means the braces are doing their job!

(I'm a newbie, too, so if this answer is wrong, one of the more experienced people here can correct me.)

[Sunny]

I reckon you sound spot on Cathy!

[catgyrl]

I reckon you sound spot on Cathy!

Oh, YAY!! I got it right!! Believe it or not, I actually look forward to that feeling. It confirms that I did the right thing, and that my money isn't going to waste.

[Sunny]

The first time one of my teeth cracked it scared me! My ortho was trying to rotate a molar and I was out with a crowd of Kiwi's watching a game of rugby. We were making loads of noise and yet I thought everyone would have heard it when I did. I took off to the toilets ... got my dentakit mirror out and had a poke around. I realised that molar was a tiny bit loose and then 'the penny dropped' and I realised the loud noise I had heard had been it being to loosen ... exciting!

I've only heard the crack a couple of times ... but each time it's been a cause for huge celebration. It's interesting how some teeth loosen and move without a sound or any feeling, others you can hear, some you can feel ... and some people say some hurt them. But ... as long as they're moving ... that's what's important if you're having orthodontic treatment!

[melgreen]

I'm so surprised that teeth loosen during ortho treatment. Not because it does not make sense but because I do not remember feeling this at all when I had braces for 3.5 years in my teens! The thought does not exactly thrill me - but I guess if I forgot about it and it did not affect me in my teens it won't now!

[Sunny]

Teeth have to loosen to move ... but most of the time I don't think people notice it. The cracking sounds for me, have only related to when molars were being rotated and the rest is that feeling when my tongue pushes against my teeth when my ortho removes the archwires. I don't like that feeling one bit ... feels like my 'security' is gone.

[jazjaz130]

This got me really nervous.

[Sunny]

Was it a tooth that needed to rotate? The first time I heard a 'cracking' noise it was scary, but then a tooth that needed to do a lot of rotating started to move and I realised it was that tooth loosening and beginning it's journey.

[jazjaz130]

No, but it was under pressure beacuse of a spring. I needed the spring beacuse of my crossbite. (one tooth behind another.)