Earlier in the week, I got a question in from a reader who is keen to move on from twin blocks to fixed braces - they had been wearing their blocks for 6 weeks and already noticed some movement of their teeth.
As always, I can't give individual advice to a patient that I haven't seen, but I think this was a good starting point for outlining some general thoughts on how orthodontists organise the changeover from one type of brace to another.
Twin blocks are a great brace for sorting out some common orthodontic problems, and it's great that many patients can see results happening in such a short time as 6 weeks.
That said, 6 weeks would be a fairly short time for these braces to do all the work they usually do - after I fit them, I usually don't organise to see my patients again for a check up for 8 - 10 weeks as long as things are comfortable for them.
In practice, I expect to run this phase of treatment for about 6-9 months.
So this is the first in a series of articles looking at specific things that might have a bearing on the length of time a patient wears twin blocks: Twin block changeover and baby teeth Orthodontists often time twin blocks to coincide with a patient's growth spurt, because they believe this gives them the best results in the shortest time.
Sometimes they start the orthodontic treatment a little earlier, especially if there are other reasons to make the orthodontics a bit more urgent (like teasing at school), and in these cases a patient might start wearing twin blocks before all their adult teeth are through the gum and into the mouth.
When this happens, there is often an extension of this phase to wait for the baby teeth to fall out and the adult teeth to come through enough to get a fixed brace on to them in the right position.
One of the great things about this design of brace is their versatility, and they can easily act as a space maintainer for adult teeth coming through the gum before they are ready for fixed appliances (train track braces).
This is especially true for this design of functional appliance, as they are so well-tolerated.
So although a patient might be fed up with their twin blocks and keen to move on to fixed braces, theblocks are still serving them well.
If in doubt, get in touch with your own orthodontist!