Braces and/or headgear aggravate tics or OCD?

[patty]

ilovedog,

 

Glad to hear that the tics are gone when the spacers are taken out!

 

I am curious as to why your son has spacers for 3 years w/o braces? Spacers are inserted between teeth a week prior to putting the braces on. The spacers create room for the braces to mount on the teeth.

 

Pat

[ilovedogs]

Patty, it's not that kind of spacer. He had a permanent space maintainer made for him. He had them on the top and bottom and they were attached to all 4 of his molars and had wires that ran to the other side. On the top, the wire ran along the roof of the mouth and had a rubber piece that pressed up against the roof of his mouth and on the bottom the wire ran behind the teeth so you couldn't see it. The spacers were there because he had so much movement in his mouth and spaces from having lost teeth due to early root canal treatments. So, basically he had braces that didn't MOVE his teeth, they were there to just keep the spaces open for the new teeth that would be erupting. He had them taken off yesterday since all his adult teeth are in, except for 3 of his 12 year molars. We had the bottom one taken off last year and finally got the top one taken off yesterday. I have always wondered if it was that rubber piece that pressed up against the roof of his mouth that might have exacerbated the tics? I almost hope I see him do the eye tics this weekend because I really don't want one more thing to deter us from starting braces.

 

Bonnie