Metal Mouth Message Board

Don't worry about it -- your ortho simply wants your teeth to have nice tight contacts prior to debonding. Think of them as speed elastics.

The difference in materials is essentially nothing. It depends on what your doctor uses to form the retainer. Thermoplastic materials come in difference thicknesses and are used for different purposes (nightguard, bleaching trays, retainer, etc.) The differences in design is simply that the Invisali...

There is no way to rebuild enamel. Those white spots you see are places where the enamel has become demineralized (they are the beginnings of a cavity). You can apply fluoride varnish to them, or simply use a flouride rinse in the evenings and they will remineralize in ~6 months time. The white spot...

New gingival tissue does not grow in to fill in the "black triangle". Sorry!

Lucyloop wrote:What a crappy thing to happen! I've not heard of them refusing to deband someone over payment. How petty!

Tell me you're joking. Do you not think the dentist should be paid for his work?

Along the lines of your logic, it's okay to steal. Is it okay to steal?

I had several old metal fillings replaced with white composite and a few of them are still visible (gray). Guessing that the old filling material was too deep to remove safely. If a dentist is going to remove a filling he is going to typically remove all of it. Leaving an old filling and placing a ...

Headgear does work, and is most often used to correct class 2 deformities (overjets).

Logically speaking, it's use because more and more limited as the patient reaches a point where the lower jaw is nearing it's full growth.

"So should I call my ortho and tell him that i think things arent moving as fast as they should?"

Isn't that a bit like telling the surgeon how to operate? Let the doctor be the doctor and do what he does best.

You can NOT compare your treatment to other treatment.

Age (and genetics!) absolutely affect things. The age can have an impact on the density of the bone which the roots must travel through to reach the desired location.

Recession deals with how much the gums are receding away from the tooth surface. It is typically discussed in terms of the facial (front) aspect and lingual (tongue-side) aspect of the tooth.

Canines are important teeth. They have long roots and serve a primary function in protecting other teeth when chewing. But to answer your question, extracting only one tooth won't necessarily shift your midline. The function of braces is to move the teeth where they need to be, so any shifting could...

Looks great, you're making wonderful progress!

The quality of those pictures, along with the glare from the lighting, makes it very difficult to determine if the final outcome was good or bad. Nobody here, unless they have training, can make knowledgeable comments regarding your treatment. I'll be a dentist in another year, and I can't even make...

The home light system cannot possibly work. It has been proven in our scientific literature that the lights used in dental offices do NOT aid in the whitening process. They DO dry the teeth out, which makes them look whiter, but the light does NOT accelerate the whitening process. Whitening trays wi...

DanTheMan wrote: Is it possible they moved that quick?

Absolutely possible.