Parts of Braces

YOUR PREMIER SUMMERLIN, NV AND HENDERSON, NV INVISALIGN & BRACES PROVIDER

At Truman Orthodontics, we take pride in educating our patients with continual, open communication throughout their orthodontic treatment. Dr. Truman and our highly trained team of orthodontic specialists realizes that many patients are curious about how braces work. While we offer a variety of different types of braces in Las Vegas, there are a number of common components that form braces. Below are explanations of the standard parts of braces and the functions they carry out.

Bands

Bands are metal rings that are custom designed to fit snugly around molars. They’re used to anchor braces to the teeth, and they’re securely sealed in place using a special fluoride-enriched dental cement that protects your tooth from decay and decalcification during the treatment process.

Brackets

Brackets do the work of actually pulling or pushing on the teeth to move them to the correct position. They’re mounted directly to the tooth or a band and have a small slot to hold the archwire in place. At our orthodontics office, we offer a wide variety of brackets including standard metal, clear ceramic, and In-Ovation brackets.

Archwire

The main wire, also called the archwire, is shaped specifically to the curve of your mouth and attaches to the bracket on each tooth. The archwire applies a constant pressure to the teeth and brackets that then moves them to their optimal position over time. Typically, a patient will go through several archwires during treatment, each one aligning the teeth closer to their final position.

Elastics

Elastics are small, specialized rubber bands that hold the archwire onto the bracket.

Hooks

Hooks are small metal extensions on a bracket that are used to mount the elastics.

Coil Springs

Coil springs are special metal springs that fit between brackets and over the archwire. They allow us to apply a more precisely calculated force to certain areas of the smile.

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