When to wear elastics...

[Loooourun]

I've been told to only wear my elastics at night, but won't my teeth just move back during the day?

I know i should trust my ortho, but she's made so many mistakes in the past. I was meant to have braces for only a year, but they messed up and took the wrong teeth out so i've had them for two years, and gaps still need closing.

So i really don't know what to do.

It hurts so much wearing them at night (i have to wrap the band round twice and have one on each side) but it feels wasted becuase it seems like my teeth just go straight back.

I'm so, so fed up :(

[Sunny]

If your ortho has recommended this, then I recommend you do what you've been told. If you're feel you can't trust your ortho, you may be best to consult with someone else and change orthos ... of course this will involve cost, but you have to decide what you'd prefer to do.

Many orthos use 'nightime' only for some types of movement, so wearing elastics for this amount of time is not unusual.

I've had elastics for the past 3 1/2 years and it's always been full time wear ... miniumum of 23 hours.

Good luck ... but please don't do anything your ortho doesn't tell you ... it's not recommended and could put your results at risk.

[Denise]

Teeth start to move back 2 hours after taking elastics off, and take 8 hours to start moving again. But if your ortho told you to only wear them at night, she may want you to have only minimal movement with the elastics. I wear mine all day and all night, except for when I am eating.

[melgreen]

I've been told it ALL depends on the person. Some people can get away with only wearing them at night - others have movement return during day if they take them off. Makes sense to me that this would be an individual case by case decision.

[Sunny]

Mostly it depends on the type of movement that's required and the amount of pressure that's needed in a certain way to achieve that movement. Some people's teeth do move more quickly than other's as Mel has written ... and it's important for the ortho to include this in the calculations.