The longer I wear my rubber bands....?

Question

.....the sooner I'll be done with them, right? *crosses fingers*

This might be a "doh" question but I just had to ask. I'm supposed to wear them 16 hours a day but I average about 20. (My ortho said it won't hurt to wear them for longer periods.)

I didn't think to ask him that, so tell me, will I be speeding things up? I'm soooo sick of these dratted things.

Answer 1

wear them all the time. i did, and bam. my braces where off in a few weeks. i got them off 2 days ago :D donbt worry, rubber bands meanss yerr at the end of your treatment. good luyck, and hang in there, your almost done!!

Answer 2

yes the longer you wear them the faster things will go.  Think of it like driving.  If you step on the gas for a longer period of time in the day, you will get farther.  Your teeth are the same way.  Where that analogy falls apart though is unlike a car pressing on the gas harder doesn't make you go faster so never put on more elastics than the orthodontist told you to, if you do the teeth will actually more more slowly because of the excess force.  You want to have a low level of force for as long osf a period of time as possible to make teeth more fast

Answer 3

You have to wear them "hourly"??? Strange. I wore mine at all times, but had to take them out when eating, of course. But I had my braces for 4 years. (But my teeth were out of control because I would never pull out my baby teeth on my own. Lol) After a while I didn't even feel them, though.

I don't believe anything will "speed it up."  It all determines on how fast your teeth move. Mine moved pretty fast and were basically straight after the first year and a half. But you have to wear them longer, to make sure they don't move from that spot. Then you wear retainers after that.  Just follow what they tell you and don't skimp out. Braces really aren't as bad as everyone makes them seem. I didn't mind them.