Bite lift

When using a fixed appliance, in order to protect the appliance from being bitten on and to make tooth movements faster and more effective - taking a significant part of the teeth out of the bite - we use an artificial bite lift.

Always plan the use of a bite lift according to the bite situation. It is most often used on the anterior tongue or in the area of the labial molars. They are also bonded to the teeth at the same time as the braces, always in pairs on two teeth of the same dental arch. As the treatment progresses, the position of the bite guards may change according to the treatment tasks, and they are often glued onto another pair of teeth. Usually they are used in some form for a significant part of the treatment, and of course when they are no longer needed they are removed.

By using an artificial bite lift, the teeth can move faster, the device itself works much more efficiently and the elastic rubber band works much better. This specifically helps to open bite to correct.

Eating and, in some cases, speaking are a little difficult with their use, but patients usually get used to bite elevators quickly.

Elastic rubber pulling

After the bite lift is in place, the elastic bands are applied over time. This adjusts the fine-tuning of the contact between the upper and lower dental arch, and certain movements of certain teeth or groups of teeth. The elastic bands are applied to the fixed orthodontic appliances by the patient. These are special elastics that bond the upper and lower teeth together.

Although they are not well known in the public domain, it is not possible to set the bite without them. Since virtually all patients have some kind of bite discrepancy, we usually use these gums for all treatments.
The patient puts the gum or gums in the right place himself, he has to wear them day and night, they can only be removed at mealtimes and then put back in after eating and brushing.

The tyres do not impede speech.

It is extremely important to wear the tyres all the time to achieve the perfect treatment result! If worn 22-24 hours a day (i.e. continuously), teeth will move 4 mm in 4 months, if worn 20-22 hours a day, teeth will move 2 mm in 4 months, and if worn 18-20 hours a day, teeth will move 1 mm! So practically, after 18 hours of wear, it is as if they were not in the mouth at all.

For the comfort of our patients, we start with very soft, fine-strength elastics in a given area to ease the adjustment, and later apply slightly stronger elastics, but the principle of soft-strength orthodontics (passive self-ligating system) is also applied here. Elastic elastics are used from the moment the fixed orthodontic appliance is bonded and are usually worn throughout the treatment. In some cases, once the bite has been adjusted, they may only need to be worn for 8-12 hours (mainly at night) to maintain the condition achieved.

The use of elastic elastics may also be necessary with invisible braces.

Mini implants

We use them when we want to move teeth without causing other tooth movement side effects, or when a particular tooth movement is not possible with just the fixed braces themselves. In the vast majority of cases, jaw surgery can be avoided by using them.

Mini-screws, for example, can be used to cover missing teeth by moving other teeth into the space of the missing tooth, thus avoiding the need for a tooth replacement altogether.
They can be used to correct dental arch misalignment, to close open bites without pulling teeth, and to move the entire upper or lower dentition forward or backward, avoiding jaw surgery.

After positioning by X-ray or CT scan, it is placed in the bone between the teeth. The insertion is done under local anaesthesia. The mini implant is screwed through the gum without cutting or drilling. It usually takes 1-2 days to get used to the implant.

Of course, they only stay in the mouth as long as they are needed, after which they are removed, so they are only used for a certain part of the treatment.
It is very important to keep them perfectly clean, because if oral hygiene is not good and even minimal gingivitis develops around them, they lose their stability and have to be removed and replaced after a short healing period.