<p>My middle school daughter is getting braces and considering the tiny metal brackets vs the slightly larger ceramic braces. Does anybody have any opinion of pros and cons of each? Do the ceramic braces and bands stain easily? Any problems with debonding the ceramics? Are either more comfortable for playing a wind instrument? Apparently, Invisalign is not a good option for her situation. Thanks for any input!</p>
<p>I believe that both of my sons had small metal brackets, with wires held in place by colorful rubber bands. I can’t offer much advice on the type of braces, but I thought I’d mention something that helped my two brass players when they had braces. We ordered something called “Morgan Bumpers” online – this is a clear, soft plastic tubing that fits over braces to smooth out the contact with the instrument. Here’s a link: <a href=“Morgan Bumper Company”>Morgan Bumper Company. Good luck!</p>
<p>My middle school D has metal bands (as did my 2 older kids). From what we had read and heard, the ceramic bands tend to break more easily, and I was not prepared to pay a higher deductible + pay for more breakage on top of the already high $$$$$.</p>
<p>My older D played the saxophone, and the middle schooler now playes the trumpet. No issues with comfort. Sometimes there is a slight irritation, but it is with the hooks, and not the bands (which is what gets wrapped around each tooth), and a little wax takes care of it.</p>
<p>I believe my S had the same type as sjmom’s, but with springs rather than rubber bands. He was in braces forever. He had some other gizmo at age 9 and finally had his braces off at 13.5. He played clarinet through those years and never had a problem with intruments. He had several broken springs, and several brackets that needed to be glued again, and a couple of wire issues. It seemed like every 45-60 days there was some issue. He followed all food rules (did not bite into whole apples, did not chew gum etc.). It was a pain, but the orthodontist always made coming a pleasure, and always had son in one of 2 of his offices the same day after school, or before school (there were 2 7:00 am appts. in all of those years). He was always in and out of the office within twenty minutes.</p>
<p>I wore the clear ceramics braces with clear ties as an adult. They tend to be brittle and breakable. And you absolutely cannot drink tea, coffee or colas; or eat certain things like berries or some candies without staining the ties. I didn’t even consider them for my kids. Our orthodontist also strongly advised against them.</p>
<p>Poor kid…my son is in herps to align his jaw, has a palate expander and braces right now. Needless to say with all that hardware, he is a percussionist.</p>
<p>My son had to have braces put back on about junior year in high school for about a year and went with ceramic. Of course he fought retreatment all the way so getting ceramic made him far less unhappy. They were much more esthetic than metal brackets and at least for him they didn’t come off, perhaps something may have to do with skill/technique of the orthodontist?? and also how careful the kid is. Since S wanted them off asap he was careful. I’d highly recommend if esthetics is important.</p>
<p>Staining? Yes. Tomato sauce so brush well after pizza, spaghetti etc which unfortunately are a mainstay of the teenage diet.</p>
<p>don’t let your son find out what my daughter did
She had clear bands on her top front teeth-
for 30 minutes- just long enough to drive her back to school.
Didn’t get any extra instructions- even beforehand, I didn’t realize how different they were from metal bands.
Oh well- she had taken all of her bands off herself- and when she got home from school I said" wow, I can’t really even see them!"’
I can laugh now, but it made me a little ill at the time-</p>
<p>I played trombone with braces on, never used wax or a morgan bumper, and found that although it was a bit tough, it’s not that bad once you get used to it.</p>
<p>The best part is that once they’re off, your skills on a brass instrument generally get better (mine did) because there’s not as much resistance.</p>
<p>As for staining, I found that green peas were the worst. I always had standard grey (no colors for me) and I just put up with them because I wasn’t about to give up one of my favorite veggies.</p>
<p>If you get a Waterpik, get the Interplak one. I went through two Teledyne Post ones before I finally got the more expensive Interplak model. It lasted me the rest of the time I had braces.</p>
<p>Flossing is going to be a pain. Your ortho should give you floss threaders. They’re really tough to use. The day I got my braces off, I pretty much spent ten minutes flossing to make up for all the missed opportunities I got because of the pain of floss threaders.</p>
<p>To make up for what will probably be worse brushing than usual (it takes some adaptation, trust me) I recommend a rinse called PhosFlur. It’s from Colgate and is available at almost any drug store. Peppermint is my flavor of choice. This is sort of like mouthwash, but it has fluoride. Use it before bed (swish 10ml for 1 minute). I still use this stuff today on a regular basis and I’ve been out of braces for a long time…only had one cavity my whole life (let me tell you, the clear composite resin fillings are great…I think my mom is the only one who knows about my filling other than me…also there’s no mercury).</p>
<p>I didn’t wear mine that long (March 29, 1999 to June 24, 2000) and really didn’t have any problems (one broken bracket was all I had). I also never had the big rubber bands that some people got saddled with. Also never had a pallete expander because my ortho told me I had a big mouth :-)</p>
<p>As far as the clear ones–I had a friend who had them during her first few years of HS. They were only noticeable if you were about a foot away from her. You couldn’t tell in her school picture, if she was across from me at the lunch table, etc. Not sure what kind they were but I never recall her having stain problems…and she ate/drank stuff that may have stained easily (notably pop and red popsicles).</p>
<p>I don’t know if she had ceramics or what they were, but I’m willing to bet she spent extra on them. This girl was also a trombone player.</p>
<p>Thanks all. We got another evaluation today from a guy who uses some other type of clear bracket. I guess you just have to pick an ortho who is recommended or someone you can trust and go with it. My daughter pretty much decided that she was her braces to be as unnoticable as possible. :D</p>
<p>My kids both had metal brackets with the colorful rubber bands. They wore them for quite a while & son played the trumpet the whole time. He never mentioned any particular problems playing it with the braces, before braces or since. I have heard that some trumpet players have a tough time adjusting to wearing the braces & then adjusting to having them off.</p>
<p>If she does go with the clear brackets, one thing you can do is go in for tie/rubberband changes in between visits if they get yellow from foods/drink. The brackets themselves won’t discolor, just the clear acrylic rubberbands or chain ties. I’m a big Diet Coke fan, so mine would get yellow fairly quickly. I would just pop in for a quick changes…my orthodontist was a good guy and never charged me for the tech’s time. He probably noticed my two children’s crooked teeth and thought he’d make it up in future customers. :-)</p>
<p>PS…I agree, the acrylics do blend very, very well. Very aesthetically pleasing.</p>
<p>My daughter had the clear braces on top (metal on the bottom); my son had the regular metal brackets. Both went to the same orthodontist, and my son now has beautiful teeth. Its absolutely amazing, because his teeth were a mess going in, and now he looks wonderful – even though it has been about 6 years since his braces were removed and I doubt that he wore his retainer for much more than a year. </p>
<p>I can’t say the same for my daughter’s teeth. They were not nearly as bad as her brother’s going in, but the end result isn’t quite what I would expect. The teeth just aren’t all that straight. </p>
<p>Now I don’t know if is because of the braces or just one of those things related to shape of the mouth or size of the teeth – but the point is, my son’s mouth didn’t look so great during the years they were full of ugly metal, but they sure look a lot better now. Unless the kid really balks, I’d opt for the metal.</p>
<p>S1 and S2 both had the metal brackets (both also had the herbst appliance, a manmade torture device). The metal brackets held up well for both. S2 played the trombone and football with a mouthful of orthodontia and it was never a big problem (save for a cut lip here and there during football season).</p>
<p>Calmom, I will definitely ask about the end results with the different kinds of brackets. I wouldn’t want to go through all of “that” to get a marginal result.</p>
<p>Uneven results: my D went through years and years of orthodontic hell, starting with two different kinds of mouth-shaping devices including one torture instrument called a Bionator which caused unending stress in our house, then four teeth pulled because it didn’t work, then a year of metal braces, then retainers, etc. The result was that when she meets a new dentist, they invariably ask: have you ever considered orthodontia? :(</p>
<p>My S has very mildly crooked teeth. We left them that way. It’s a shame that we are in a society where that’s considered weird, but there you are. I’m sorry I put my D through that nightmare.</p>
<p>My heart goes out to all kids with orthodontic problems and their parents. Please, go to a skilled orthodontist and get it done right the 1st time. Don’t necessarily go only to the orthodontist your dentist reccommends. Ask around and get a 2nd opinion. You would do it for your gall bladder, why not your children’s teeth.</p>
<p>I had to have braces put back on during law school and it was not funny.</p>
<p>We offered our son braces, and he emphatically refused. His teeth are not perfect, but decent. His big worry was that a change in his mouth would change his embouchure and tone (related to mouth shape) on clarinet. Appearance is really superficial to him.</p>
<p>Our daughter, otoh, notices everything superficial about herself and others. It’s really not medically necessary, but she want that perfect hollywood smile. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what a Bionator is, but I know kids who were tortured by something called a Herbst appliance, and I myself had a palette expander. Aweful things. I would never do that to my kids unless it was really necessary. Ugh!</p>
<p><a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2002181033_healthbraces16.html[/url]”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2002181033_healthbraces16.html</a>
If you don’t want your teeth to move after finishing treatment- wear your retainer- forever- otherwise they may move- doesn’t have anything to do with the skill of the provider.</p>
<p>My D had overlapping baby teeth, the result of her father’s big-teeth gene mixing with my small-mouth gene. (My son got his father’s big-mouth gene and my small-teeth gene: perfect bite!) My poor daughter had her first palate spreader at age 5 and her second at age 8 when we discovered that her adult teeth were huge and still overlapped. Then she had her first round of braces and head gear (8-11), then a retainer until 14, then another round of braces (off at 16). She still wears her retainer. </p>
<p>Three different orthodontists in three different cities. I too recommend shopping around. Your child will be spending HOURS with these people. Make sure they are: prompt (nothing worse than missing something because of your adjustments), provide thorough explanations of why they want to do what they want to do, listen to your child’s questions as carefully as they do to yours, provide a payment plan that covers what they intend to do in detail, bill the insurance company, and have someone who covers nights and weekends. There probably won’t be a problem, but when my D popped a wire and it went into her gum, I was awfully glad to hear her orthodontist say “I’ll meet you at the office in 15 minutes” even though it was Saturday at 9PM.</p>
<p>Agree with EK. My son’s retainer stayed in New Orleans when he fled Katrina last August with only his backpack, and his ortho here in NC said he couldn’t help while son was at Cornell all Fall. By the time he got home in December, he had to have a lower wire removed and a whole new retainer made. It was a new kind, even. Now the old one is useless. </p>
<p>Things get complicated…but not anything like they still are for the real residents down there, so I’m not really complaining, just “amening” the warning.</p>