Placing Metal Wire Tie

A metal wire tie is placed when advancing to 14x25 CuNiti wires. Wire ties are always placed, unless there is severe rotation and crowding. The duty of the wire tie is to make sure that, as we transition to a rectangular wire and start to get width, no spacing occurs between the anterior/front teeth. Even if there is spacing, you would still wire tie so that the spaces do not get any bigger. A metal wire tie can close a very small space if pulled tightly, but it does not close large spaces. The reason why you do not wire tie with crowding is because space from width would allow the rotations to unravel, and the same goes with any teeth that are rotated and need space.

Removing Metal Wire Tie

The wire tie can be removed by taking a mathieu and untwisted the whole thing, but that is not very time efficient. The best way to remove the steel tie is by taking the ligature cutter and cutting the tie at the 1mm space that should have been left, or right up against either side of the bracket. Once all sides have been cut, you can individually remove each section of wire. Make sure that you keep track of each piece because they are very small and can be very sharp. You do not want any pieces to end up somewhere they shouldn't. In the video you can see that I placed them on my glove and then when the patient is brushing I take that glove off, leaving the pieces rolled up inside and throw it away. The wire tie does not, and is typically not, removed every visit. Once it is placed, it is only removed when a power chain is being place to close space, or the patient has requested that it is removed.