Today we’re going to answer a question: do broken brackets delay the treatment? Does it affect other teeth? Or it only affects the tooth that the bracket is loosened.

This is a good question. This really depends on the stage of the treatment you’re at.

If you got your braces yesterday in a bracket that came off and it was on a back tooth, most likely that bracket can be repaired at your next appointment and not change anything at all. If you have a very misaligned tooth in the front and that bracket came off, then that tooth is not going to keep up with the rest of the teeth. Most likely your next appointment when it’s repaired, you’re going to have to back up the wire and it’ll actually set the treatment back just a little bit. Also if you’re towards the end of your treatment and things are straight if a bracket comes off and a tooth moves, most likely that means they’re going to have to drop down to a lighter wire to pick up that tooth to get it back into alignment.

A lot of times a bracket might come off you may not even notice that. The tooth might stay right where it is and orthodontists can go ahead and repair that bracket and have no negative consequences. It’s only if the tooth that the bracket is attached to either needs to move a long way or if the bracket comes off that tooth moves in the wrong direction, which is going to delay the treatment.

With braces, we need to basically get all the teeth hooked up and moving at the same pace.

If one tooth falls behind, usually we have to back up everything and pick that one back up. So generally speaking, losing brackets is not an emergency. Orthodontists can see you at your regular scheduled appointment. If you feel like a tooth is moving or is not lining up, properly because the bracket’s off. That may be a time to get into the office to get it fixed a little bit sooner. So it doesn’t delay your treatment.

Broken brackets happen almost everyone who has braces ends up with one or two broken brackets. Generally speaking, you still finish about on the regular treatment time. So it’s not too big of a deal.

Hope that helps. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them below.