Have you ever wondered about how midline elastics can be used more effectively to help prevent canting from occurring? If so, our friendly experts here at Straight Smile Solutions are on hand to give you a little more guidance and thoughts overall on the right treatment plan to prevent canting.
What are Midline Elastics?
Midline elastics are a process used to help align the teeth in patients where the upper and lower teeth do not match. More specifically, they are used to align the center of the lower and upper tooth arches.
During midline elastics cases, an elastic wire or band is hooked to the upper and lower canines (typically, though not always). In theory, this serves to help gradually align the teeth – however, it can result in canting, which causes asymmetry between the gums and the teeth themselves.
How to Prevent Canting with Midline Elastics Cases
If you get canting in your patients using midline elastics, the problems can often be almost impossible to fix. As such, you should always try to prevent canting from occurring during your treatment plan.
First, it’s important to use heavy stable wires. Ideally, you should also have good spacing in the mouth to reduce the risk of canting overall.
If you’re having difficulty with your midline elastics cases, you may want to try another technique instead, such as differential anchorage or sequential distalization, where the aligners themselves help move the teeth.
Final Thoughts
Finding the optimal strategy for your own midline elastics cases can sometimes seem difficult. However, canting can potentially become an issue in some cases. As such, it’s important to be prepared for this when creating your patient’s treatment plan and take precautionary steps to reduce the risk of canting during your own midline elastics cases.
Need further ideas on how to tackle a particular case? Our experts here at Straight Smile Solutions provide professional dentist consulting solutions to help you find the optimal strategy for every patient.