Most people don’t love the idea of needing to get braces. They might immediately be intimidated by the thought of how they might look or feel or all of the things they need to do to take care of them.

The reality is, that getting braces isn’t the scary experience that many people may think of. Sure, they can take some getting used to it and they may cause a bit of discomfort at the beginning. However, with advancements in oral healthcare over the years, they have become much more effective and easier for clients to manage.

Still, many people might be nervous about what happens if their braces brackets or connecting wires break. Should they go to the hospital? How do they deal with the problem? To help put your mind at ease, we’ve provided some helpful information you can reference if you’re ever dealing with broken braces brackets.

Understanding the Different Components of Your Braces

Before we help you manage broken brackets or other components of your braces, it’s important to have a good understanding of how your braces are actually designed. Below are some of the key components orthodontists use when installing braces:

Archwire

The archwire is the metal wire that you’ll see stretching across your teeth. Most people refer to it as looking like train tracks as it connects to all of your teeth and resembles separate railroad tracks on the ground.

Archwires are one of the most important components of your braces since they’re what is used to provide the necessary tension to gradually help teeth shift to the optimal alignment. Depending on the length of your orthodontic treatment, your orthodontist will want to regularly adjust or even replace this arch wire over time as needed during a scheduled checkup.

From time to time, a broken wire or protruding wire can break, and you’ll want to contact your orthodontist for repair. They may temporarily use some dental wax to help you avoid any further mouth injury until the repair is made.

Bracket

Along the archwire are square-shaped attachments – usually made of metal – that attach to each individual tooth. Brackets are what connect to the archwire to keep teeth uniformly aligned when receiving treatment.

Brackets will be bonded to each tooth and have a special slot that the archwire can fit into. Without this feature, the archwire wouldn’t serve its necessary purpose.

Ligature

Most of the time, when receiving braces, you’re given the option of choosing certain colors that are used to personalize your smile. This is where the ligatures come in. Ligatures are the tiny elastics that surround each brace bracket.

The tension of the ligature is what ensures that the archwire stays firmly attached to a bracket. Over time, the ligature tension will release, and your orthodontist will change it to ensure adequate pressure for the connection stay in place.

Coil Spring

Although not used in all applications, your orthodontist may install coil springs between each of your brackets. These help to support specific adjustments when needing to widen or close gaps between certain teeth.

Wire Tie

While most braces are installed using ligatures, in some scenarios, wire ties may be used as an alternative solution to secure the archwire to the brackets. Wire ties are typically reserved for certain scenarios where teeth may need additional support doing more controlled movements.

Band

The bands of your braces are the primary support attachments used for your archwire. Bands are metal rings that will be installed around your molars to provide anchor support for any tension that’s applied.

In some cases, bands are also used to allow additional attachments to be put in place to help with bit correction.

Elastics

For many brace applications, elastic rubber bands may be used to provide additional force to certain teeth. This is usually applied to help with vertical alignments or to help close gaps and correct your bite.

Elastics are easy to remove and replace, and your orthodontist will provide instructions on how and when to do them to help achieve optimal results.

What Can Cause an Orthodontic Emergency When Having Braces?

While braces are designed to still allow you to carry on with your regular routine with slight adjustments, there may be a time when something goes wrong with your appliance. These can lead to orthodontic emergencies that will require intervention from your orthodontist to help address.

Some of the most common orthodontic emergencies you might experience include:

  • Loose Archwires – With regular movements of your jaw and when eating food, you may notice that over time, your archwire starts to feel loose or can even be bent. In other cases, an archwire can shift too far left or right along the top or bottom row of teeth. This can potentially cause the wire to poke at the inside of your cheek or gums.
  • Swollen Mouth or Gums – It’s fairly common to experience some initial discomfort or swelling when braces are applied. However, this should start to resolve on its own relatively quickly. If your gums become more inflamed over time or bleeding occurs, this can be a sign of infection, and your orthodontist will need to check if brushing and flossing regularly doesn’t resolve the issue.
  • A Missing or Loose Bracket – Even though most braces today are designed to survive regular wear and tear, it’s possible that you may come across a missing or broken brackets on your teeth. If this happens, the tooth it was attached to won’t be receiving the necessary tension to help support realignment and will need to be inspected and repaired by your orthodontist.

In any of these events, it’s important to reach out to your oral healthcare specialist who will be able to provide additional instructions to help you with the emergency and schedule a checkup as soon as possible.

How Do Broken Brackets Happen?

Because of their location, one of the most common issues to occur is experiencing loose or broken brackets. Broken braces brackets can happen for a variety of reasons, including:

  • Eating foods that are too hard or sticky
  • Injuries sustained to the face or mouth causing bracket or wire breaks
  • Brushing or flossing your teeth too aggressively
  • Regularly using toothpicks to clear food debris

What Should You Do if You Have a Broken Braces Bracket?

If you ever notice a loose braces bracket or one breaks off, don’t panic. There are a few helpful tips you can follow to help manage the situation until you have the opportunity to see your orthodontist:

1. Check for Loose or Damaged Brackets

Whenever brushing your teeth or flossing, it’s a good practice to inspect your braces to make sure everything is properly attached. The brackets used in your braces are positioned to your teeth using dental adhesives. Over time, these adhesives may loosen and no longer properly secure the braces bracket to the archwire, and they’ll need to be rebonded. In some cases there may even be broken wires that need to be fixed.

2. Gently Remove a Disconnected Bracket if Possible

In the event you discover a broken braces bracket, you’ll have a few different options. If your bracket is still attached to your archwire but is dangling off of the tooth, you can either temporarily secure it in place using a small amount of orthodontic wax or safely remove it. To safely remove the broken braces bracket, you can use a toothpick to grab the bracket at the ligature and gently pull it off of the archwire.

3. Book an Appointment As Soon As Possible

You won’t be able to fix a broken braces bracket in your home. Never try to glue a braces bracket in place or attempt a repair on your own. Once you’ve either safely removed a broken bracket from your archwire or used orthodontic wax to hold it in place, schedule an appointment with your orthodontist right away so they can help repair your braces.

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