During initial bonding there are cases where there is not enough room for proper bracket placement. Bonding can often be cumbersome and time consuming. The Siamese brackets have to be steel tied and the arch wire can be difficult to engage into the slot. This helped to cause the large popularity in self-ligating brackets.
As an economical alternative when using self ligating or Siamese brackets, a cast eyelet can be used (Ortho Direct #600-1116) and the archwire is threaded right through the eyelet opening. This eyelet has a narrower base and the size of the eyelet is smaller so it can be positioned into the inter-proximal area. There are no steel ties needed with this approach and once the teeth have moved, the eyelet can be either removed and a bracket placed or the eyelet can be shifted over for more rotation correction.
As an alternative to this, we have cut a lower central incisor or lower bicuspid bracket in half to do a similar thing, and this allows the Orthodontist to be able to torque while de-rotating, if required. OH
Dr. Mark Lawrence is a Certified Specialist in Clinical Orthodontics. He has practices in Campbell River, Comox Valley and Port McNeill, British Columbia.
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