Home Page

What to do if your fixed brace breaks

Date issued: January 2024 

Review date: January 2026 

Ref: B-387/Maxillofacial/KD/What to do if your fixed brace breaks v3

PDF:  What to do if your fixed brace breaks January 2024 v3.pdf[pdf] 91KB

Sometimes braces break and cause problems. If you follow our instructions about looking after your brace, you shouldn’t have many problems. Please be careful with your brace. If you break it often, your treatment will take longer than expected.

Here are some problems you may experience:

The brace may rub your cheeks

When you first have a brace, it can rub your lips and cheeks. If this happens you can put some soft wax onto the parts of the brace that are rubbing. We will provide the wax and explain how to use it.

The wire may come out of the brace

Wires used at the start of treatment are flexible. This means that sometimes the wire can come out of the tubes on the back teeth. If the wire comes out and is not hurting you, it is fine to leave this until your next visit.  But if it is painful or causing a problem you should contact the department.

A bracket may come off a tooth

Biting or chewing on hard objects or foods can break the glue that holds the brackets onto the teeth. If you break a bracket, you might hear a ‘crunch’ or ‘click’, you might see that the bracket has come off the tooth or feel that it is loose. If you break a bracket and you have an appointment in the next 2 weeks, you can wait until your appointment to have it mended.  Otherwise, you should contact the department.

The coloured rings or elastics break or come off

The coloured rings that hold the wire in place may sometimes come off. We may use colourless elastic chain to move your teeth and sometimes this can break or come off. If you lose a ring or an elastic and you have an appointment in the next 2 weeks, you can wait until your appointment to have this replaced.  Otherwise, you should contact the department.

Breakage appointments

If your brace is broken and needs to be mended, it is not usually urgent that it is mended straight away, but we would like to see you. We have appointments available to repair broken braces on weekdays Monday-Friday. These appointments are around lunchtime. To book an appointment please call us on 01752 432983 and explain what the problem with your brace is. Our receptionist will arrange for you to see one of our team to mend your brace. This appointment might not be the orthodontist you normally see.

Was this page helpful?

Was this page helpful?
Rating

Please answer the question below, this helps us to reduce the number of spam emails that we receive so that we can spend more time responding to genuine enquiries and feedback. Thank you.

*

Our site uses cookies to help give you a better experience. If you choose not to accept these cookies, our site will still work correctly but some content may not display. You can read our cookie policy here

Please choose a setting: