What Do Rubber Bands Do To Your Teeth When You Have Braces

You wear them while you sleep and you use a new pair everyday.

What do rubber bands do to your teeth when you have braces.

Orthodontic rubber bands or elastics are one of the most common tools orthodontists use to straighten your teeth. The braces themselves help straighten your teeth while the rubber bands used with braces help to straighten and align your bite. If you have braces your orthodontist might give you small rubber bands to attach to your brackets to help move and align your teeth. An orthodontist will instruct the patient exactly which teeth the rubber bands should connect and this might change month to month.

There are several parts to braces. Rubber bands align your top and bottom teeth making them crucial for the bite fixing stage of your orthodontic treatment. Since this is the most difficult part of the braces process you will want to be sure that you wear them correctly and do not leave them off after eating. You should be able to eat with your braces rubber bands on without any issue.

We use rubber bands for almost every patient who receives traditional metal braces as they provide the necessary connective forces needed to move your jaws and teeth into proper alignment but what do rubber bands do for braces. The small rubber or metal elastics more commonly called rubber bands that surround your braces are technically called elastic ligatures a ligature is used primarily to keep the archwire held into the slot on the bracket but they can also direct the teeth in a particular direction depending on the type of ligature used and how it is tied onto the tooth. If you have issues with eating talk to your orthodontist and they may recommend taking the bands off while you eat. Rubber bands are an important part of the orthodontic treatment.

Most of the time you are supposed to use your rubber bands while eating. To this end braces have several parts that work together. Some patients will have to wear them for a full year or longer. First there are the brackets which are the square metal pieces bonded directly to the teeth.

The only time rubber bands are taken out of the mouth is when the patient eats or brushes their teeth. Luckily there are several strategies you can try out to help alleviate rubber bands and braces pain. Once the correction has occured the rubber bands are not worn as much and slowly you are weaned off of them. While they may cause some discomfort they re an important part of your overall orthodontic plan.

They provide the connective force necessary to move the teeth and jaw into the proper alignment. They should not block your mouth or your throat.