will /did a Busy Orth lengthen your treatment time??

Message

#16 Post by **tatiana** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:53 am

i'm going to go out and say that yes, it's possible that going to a busy ortho may extend your time in braces. for example, i should be going in this week for my last appt before I get my braces off the following week. However, there were no open times for this week, so I have to keep my braces on longer.

#17 Post by **jcdamon3** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:22 am

I agree with tatania. It is possible that a busy ortho can make your treatment time take longer. Some people have to wait for a really long time between their consult and their braces placement or longer for their spacers. Also:

Most adjustment timelines are longer than 2 weeks. OK, perhaps at the very end of treatment when the ortho is making last little bits of fine tuning the timeline between appointments might be short like that, but for the bulk of treatment 6 - 8 weeks, 8 - 10 weeks, or 10 - 12 weeks would all be more typical. The shorter times are more the norm for brackets that need ligs. Self-ligating brackets often come with longer times bwteen adjustments.

I have self ligating brackets and I have never had an appointment be longer than 6 weeks. My ortho is not very busy as I believe he is fairly new to this office. My treatment has been a bit weird because my lower teeth are way more crooked than my upper teeth so my upper teeth have had to sit around and wait while the lower teeth did something. Still - never more than 6 weeks and sometimes as short as 4 weeks. Also, there was a very short time between my conult, my records apointment, my spacers and my braces installation.

Good Luck!

Mon Aug 21, 2006 11:34 am

If your ortho does not have the time to schedual you to see him in order to finish your treatment in the standard 18-24 period then he should not be seeing any new patients

Mon Aug 21, 2006 11:56 am

Ya it seems some people have 6 weeks to 10 weeks adjustment gap. I know it really depend on your condition, but it seems quite possible your orthâ€™s schedule effects the length of this gap as well.
Please correct me if Iâ€™m wrong.
So letâ€™s say your treatment needs 18 adjustments
Since there is 53 weeks in one year, sooooo :

For a normal orth
18 adjustment x 6 weeks = 108 weeks = 2 years and 2 weeks

For a busy orth
18 adjustment x 10 weeks = 180 weeks = 3 years and 5 months

So as you can see, with a busy orth you are going to be on brace for 1 and half year more !!!!comparing with a normal orth. I dont know about u, but it seem 1.5 years seem like a long time for me. Of course I might exaggerated a little bit with the 10 weeks (probably should be 8 weeks, but 1 year extra is still alot), but you get the point. If an orth have a habit of delaying your adjustment, it will build up quite a lot of your whole treatment time. Again this is just a general estimate (different patient, different doc will have different treatment time..) but it seems it makes some logical senses for a general rules of thumb.

I guess now my question is, is there anyway to prevent this from happening ? maybe some sort of written agreement saying that , adjustments shouldn't be no longer then 10 weeks for certain condition.. etc etc...

#20 Post by **jcdamon3** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 12:26 pm

What if your appointments were 4 weeks apart, but he only changed wires every second appointment? Would it not have been about the same to go in every 8 weeks then? (Of course, this is neglecting the question, if applicable, of needing to replace ligs)

Well what if your teeth are ready to be moved to the next wire in 4 weeks and your appointment isn't until 6 weeks?

Here is what I think. After the first few visits your ortho should be pretty good at telling if your teeth are moving quickly or not. They should be able to estimate when the next adjustment is needed. Now once they have determined that, AS LONG AS they have time for appointments and are not purposely pushing them out to 8 weeks REGARDLESS of how fast your teeth are moving then you will have an optimal treatment length.

My ortho never gives me a choice of 4 or 6 weeks appointments. He always tells me when to book my next appointment.

I myself think that the 6 weeks my ortho is giving (currently) is perfect. I can tell right now after 4 weeks that my teeth still needs to settle down just a bit before the next appointment. And I am positive that if I went in after 6 weeks and he thought that I needed to wait another two he would put my appointment in 2 weeks, not in another 6 weeks.

Mon Aug 21, 2006 12:44 pm

Anyway, haven't the different orthos you've consulted with given you estimated treatment times?

ya they did, and all of them gave me a different time.

2 years, 2+ years and 1.5 years.

Thats what it puzzled me at the beginning. Are the orth really giving the whole picture here..

#22 Post by **Ilovetosmile232** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 1:29 pm

Out of curiosity, was your apparently very busy doc offering the longest estimate?

I dunno, I'm still waiting for my first consultation with him, heh.
It has been a month now (going to need to wait for another month). But I heard he is very good, thats why he is so busy. So during this time, Im just wondering if it is worth it to wait for a good busy orth or just get a decent orth with less scheduled appointment. I'm getting a mix message from all the replies. Some say yes and some say no, and if its is true then its likely I can't proof that with my orth as well

probably need a DR in this post for this Specific question.. any DR in the house? heh

#23 Post by **Bianca** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:00 pm

I have absolute confidence in my ortho, and so far every appointment has been either six or eight weeks apart.

It's pretty weird, the first week will be a little uncomfortable and then it feels fine, but then a couple weeks later my teeth feel uncomfortable again, like the treatment just continues without an ortho appointment.

#24 Post by **Bianca** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:02 pm

Also keep in mind that just because your teeth moved does not mean you are ready for the next appointment.

After the teeth move the root of the tooth needs time to catch up. If the roots are moved too quickly they decrease in size, and you can start to lose teeth if it is done too quickly or too much at a time.

Just because a gap closes in the first week does not mean the rest of the time is wasted, for your roots are still doing their thing.

Unfortunately orthodontic treatment is not something that can be done quickly. I would be careful of any orthodontist who quotes a super-fast treatment time, as the roots are very important and need time to adjust.

#25 Post by **rexthedestroyer** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:13 pm

Try to make the best decsion for yourself. Don't worry about time. If he tells you it will take 24 months he should try to have it meet that time period unless your teeth (and not his schedual) requires him to alter your schedual. I know this is a big deciscion for you and it took me several years of research before I made the jump, but don't worry so much. Pick an ortho and go for it. Don't do math in your head your only going to confuse yourself. I have had my braces on for 13 days now and I barely remember I have them most of the time. I want to get them off ASAP, but they really don't bother me anymore.