What To Do If You Have Broken Bracket on Your Braces

Having a broken braces bracket can be both inconvenient and worrisome. When you have metal brackets and wires in your mouth, you can only imagine not wanting anything to come between you and that perfect smile that the braces will offer you. What happens if one day you find out that the brace’s bracket is broken or you have a loose wire? This post will thus look at the causes of the phenomenon and ways of ensuring it does not happen.

Why Do Braces Brackets Break?

There are several reasons that brackets come unstuck.

• Injury or Accident: Are you a sportsperson who has suffered a blow to the mouth while in a game or an accident with severe impacts on the face? Of course, that could have broken your bracket very well.
• Adhesion Failure: At times, the cement that sticks brackets to your teeth is expected to remain sticky throughout the entire period you have the braces on; it can fail and detach for one reason or another, making brackets pop off.

Risks and Consequences

A bracket in braces can be a misfortune to any patient and their orthodontist because not only does it take time until the discomfort is attended to or corrected, but the movements of the teeth may be disturbed, or your extra time has to be worn in the braces.

That is why when the braces bracket breaks off or gets loose, the tooth might return to its original position before the braces are fixed. That would result in an elongation of the time that would be taken to complete treatment procedures, and additional orthodontic processes could be called for afterward.

As for putting the cast back into the mold or taking the mold to the next location, there will be pain or discomfort from the broken bracket. It can be relatively painful because it rubs on the inside of the mouth.

How Would You Tell Whether Your Braces Are Broken?

• Teeth with bands or brackets parted from each other, with or without attached wire.
• Sore throat and cheek that result from a bracket that has inclined or even become dizzy.
• Inflammation of gums around the bracket for the affected one.
• Problems in speaking and swallowing; the patient cannot open or shut the mouth properly.
• Pain when consuming specific products since there is a bracket that has partially shifted or has moved to another location.

1. Assess the Damage

The first thing that you should do if you find that your bracket came off is to check the extent of the damage the bracket caused to your braces. Sometimes, when one bracket comes off, the others follow it. This is you because, by wire, they are connected.

What seems to be quite usual is when more than one bracket comes off at that particular time. If this is true, then scan through them to find out if any of them are about to slip off. Remove any bracket nearly coming off the frame and put it into a little container.

If the wire is strong enough, you’re left with floating brackets. They won’t be painful and will remain in position until cemented back. Bending is when you feel pain and irritation.

2. Ease Any Irritation You Feel

These cases are normally felt on the cheeks or the gums when the wires are bent and protruding. If untreated, they can cause breaks and cuts in the skin. Possible consequences of such persistence include the swelling of affected tissues.

This can be done, and this reduces the effects of the excess Wire poking at the mouth. Another tool you can use is nail Clippers, in case you don’t have a Wire cutter.

3. Tuck Away Any Loose Wire

You don’t have to trim the wires, but if this makes you uncomfortable, you can always use a pair of pliers and bend them. If you can, bend it away from the softer parts of your mouth and towards the teeth. Biting down may feel strange, but having metal dig into your mouth is preferable.

Slightly wetting a Q-tip is fine for this purpose. You can also wrap the string around another firm bracket. Place it below to reduce the distance of striking and to avoid being pricked with the poking tool.

If all the above fail, putting gum on the wire can ease the pain. Do not use normal gum, but rather sugarless gum to minimize your teeth’ contact with sugar. Orthodontic wax is also an excellent option; it is less effective for sticking to wires.

4. Schedule An Appointment

Now that we are no longer in pain, it is about time to come in for a visit. There is no way you could cement the brackets for yourself if you are not a dentist. An appointment is the right thing to do since you have no equipment that can be used to fix your broken braces.

The braces on the bracket should be secured as soon as you can. This is to minimize the number of occasions you are inconvenienced during the rollout processes. It also helps avoid the likelihood of relapse on your teeth back to how they were before the braces were placed. If they do, you have to bear the braces longer than the recommended time.

5. Maintain Good Oral Hygiene

Once you have scheduled an appointment with your orthodontist, you have to prepare your mouth for the appointment. But this is important since sometimes you may have cuts and other breakage in your mouth.

This way, make sure your mouth is as clean as it could be so nothing gets infected before the appointment. A good way to do this is to gargle warm salt water frequently. It can disinfect any sore inside the mouth, thus preventing some infections, but you get a little burned when doing this.

Another type of antiseptic rinse that should be recommended is the antiseptic rinse. They are not conventional mouthwash, so one must seek permission before gargling. It is also important to note that your antiseptic wash has to be for mouth use as well.

Wrapping Up

Minor discomfort and the lack of interference with treatment may cause your orthodontist to wait for you to come for your next session to fix it. But it’s better to phone the office when you encounter a problem, and they’ll tell you to come earlier if needed. Should you require an appointment, Lytle Dental will look at your braces and may need to fix or replace broken brackets or wires.