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Choose a glossary:
- Appliance
- Anything your orthodontist attaches to your teeth
which moves your teeth or changes the shape of your jaw.
- Archwire
- The metal wire that acts as a track to guide your teeth
along as they move. It is changed periodically throughout treatment
as your teeth move to their new positions.
- Band
- A metal ring that is cemented to your tooth and goes completely
around your tooth. Bands provide a way to attach brackets to your
teeth.
- Bond
- The seal created by orthodontic cement that holds your appliances
in place.
- Bracket
- A metal or ceramic part cemented (“bonded”)
to your tooth that holds your archwire in place.
- Coil Spring
- A spring that fits between your brackets and over
your archwire to open space between your teeth.
- Elastic (Rubber
Band)
- A small rubber band that is hooked between different points
on your appliance to provide pressure to move your teeth to their
new position.
- Elastic Tie
- The rubber band that fits around your
bracket to hold the archwire in place. They come in a variety of
colors.
- Headgear
- Headgear uses an external wire apparatus known
as a facebow to gently guide the growth of your face and jaw by
moving your teeth into proper position. The force is applied to
the facebow by a spring-loaded neck strap or head strap. The straps
have a safety release that disconnects if the facebow is pulled
or snagged.
- Headgear Tube
- A round, hollow attachment on your back bands.
The inner bow of your headgear fits into it.
- Hook
- A welded or removable
arm to which elastics are attached.
- Ligature
- A thin wire that holds
your archwire into your bracket.
- Lip Bumper
- A lip bumper is an
archwire attached to a molded piece of plastic. The lip bumper
holds back the molars on your lower jaw to provide more space for
your other teeth.
- Mouthguard
- A device that protects your mouth
from injury when you participate in sports or rigorous activities.
- Palatal
Expander
- A device that makes your upper jaw wider.
- Retainer
- An appliance
that is worn after your braces are removed, the retainer attaches
to your upper and/or lower teeth to hold them in place. Some retainers
are removable and others are bonded to the tongue-side of several
teeth.
- Separator (or Spacer)
- A small rubber ring that creates space
between your teeth before the bands are attached.
- Tie Wire
- A fine
wire that is twisted around your bracket to hold the archwire in
place.
- Wax
- Wax is used to stop your braces from irritating your
lips.
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- Banding
- The process of fitting and cementing orthodontic bands
to your teeth.
- Bonding
- The process of attaching brackets to your
teeth using special orthodontic cement.
- Cephalometic X-ray
- An x-ray
of your head which shows the relative positions and growth of the
face, jaws and teeth.
- Consultation
- A meeting with your orthodontist
to discuss a treatment plan.
- Debanding
- The process of removing
cemented orthodontic bands from your teeth.
- Debonding
- The process
of removing cemented orthodontic brackets from your teeth.
- Impressions
- The process of making a model of your teeth by biting into a
soft material that hardens into a mold of your teeth. Your orthodontist
will use these impressions to prepare your treatment plan.
- Invisalign®
- An alternative to traditional braces, Invisalign
straightens your teeth with a series of clear custom-molded aligners.
Invisalign can correct some, but not all, orthodontic problems.
- Ligation
- The process of attaching an archwire to the brackets
on your teeth.
- Panoramic X-ray
- An x-ray that rotates around your head to take
pictures of your teeth, jaw and other facial areas.
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