Elastics with Braces

In addition to tooth movement forces from braces brackets and wires, elastics will exert an additional force on your teeth when worn. This may cause temporary soreness of teeth and the jaw muscles. This will disappear after the 1st week of elastic wear as your teeth shift into position and when you get used to the feeling of elastic wear.

Here are some tips to help ease into regular elastic wear: 

• Take light painkillers to ease discomfort
• Start wearing elastics home and nightwear for the first few days and build up to full-time wear.

Practice and Patience. Start by practicing in front of a mirror. Elastics with braces is an easy 2-step process.

There will always be a Start and End point of elastics in the mouth. These points are defined by your Orthodontist and must be followed.

Step 1:

• Hook elastics from the Start Point located further back of the mouth.
• Press and hold down the elastics onto the bracket, tube, button or TADs.
• Gently pull forward to engage the elastic at the Start Point.

Step 2:

• Stretch the elastic forward and hook over the End Point to finish.

Watch our video on ‘How to Wear Class II Elastics with Braces’ here.

Watch our video on ‘How to Wear Class III Elastics with Braces’ here.

Patients with Fixed Braces may be instructed to wear Elastics from:

• Bracket to Hook, Tube, or Button
• Bracket to TADs

Do call our Clinic for help. Our Team is ready to assist with elastics training and to investigate the problem.

Some of the possible reasons why you can not find the Start Point:

• The Button/ Tube/ TAD is missing, loose or deformed, making it difficult to hook elastics on.
• The Button/ Tube/ TAD is blocked by inflamed gums.
• Please call the clinic to schedule an earlier appointment.

The most important details of your prescribed orthodontic elastics are the Size (in inches)  and the Force levels (in Oz). These are printed on the front of the orthodontic elastics pack.

Ignore the cute name on the pack of elastics. This is not important and will change from manufacturer to manufacturer. It can be a country name, type of animal, or object name, etc, it really is irrelevant. The most important details are the Size and the Force levels.

Elastics, if swallowed, will pass out safely when you go poo-poo.

Do not yawn widely, eat with elastics on, or play with elastics in your mouth to prevent breaking or dislodging your elastics.

Avoid eating with elastics on, as you will increase the risk of swallowing elastics. Remove elastics before meals. You can wrap elastics around your little ‘pinky’ finger during meals so that it is easier to remember to wear the elastics back.

Avoid wrapping elastics in tissue paper or stuffing it in your pockets to prevent losing them.

No! More pieces is not better. Wearing more pieces of elastic can cause severe side effects that will unnecessarily drag out treatment time, damage teeth, and incur unnecessary costs to rectify. Follow the elastics instructions prescribed by our Orthodontic Team.

The hours of elastic wear are more important for light, continuous orthodontic forces that have been shown to promote faster tooth movement.

Patience and Practice. Your fingers are readily available; therefore, they are the BEST tools for putting on elastics. With your OWN FINGERS, elastics can be worn any time of the day. But we understand that sometimes, fingers may not have the grip or ‘feeling’ to hang onto elastics.

We do the Elastic Placer, a tool to help our patients with great difficulties using their fingers to wear elastics. This little tool is useful but patients will become very dependent on it and stop wearing elastics if they lose the Elastic Placer. This will unnecessarily lengthen treatment time.